Indian Prime Minister inaugurates northern railway track destroyed in war

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday flagged off a train service between Talaimannar, an island in Sri Lanka's north, to the capital Colombo.

The railway track was built with funding from the Indian government which has already allocated millions of dollars to develop the Tamil dominated north of Sri Lanka.

All services on the railway line were stopped in June 1990 after the Tamil Tiger rebels blasted the Mannar bridge in the northern province, which linked Mannar and Talaimannar island during the island's 30 year civil war.

The 63-km newly built railway track between Mannar and Talaimannar Pier in the northwest is the last segment of a 265 km- long northern railway line reconstruction project funded by an Indian state owned company.

The Sri Lankan government said that the completion of the rail projects in the northern region is a big step towards providing safe, time and fuel efficient, comfortable and environment friendly transport service to its citizens.

"After re-opening this section, the commitment of the Sri Lankan government to restoring rail track connectivity in the Northern Province after a lapse of 25 years will be fulfilled. This will also fulfill the long-cherished dream of the local Tamil people for having direct rail connectivity to Colombo," the government said.

Modi, who is currently on a two day state visit to Sri Lanka, provided a fresh Line of Credit of up to 318 million U.S. dollars for the island nation's railways sector on Friday.

"This will be used to procure rolling stock, and to restore and upgrade existing railway tracks," he said. Endi