A nearly 400-km long Jaffna-Colombo railway line, reconstructed with Indian assistance in Sri Lanka's former war zone, was on Monday inaugurated by President Mahinda Rajapaksa, 24 years after it was shut down during the civil war.The government hopes that the reopening of the rail link will help alleviate shortage of supplies in the north which was cut off during the conflict. The "Queen of Jaffna", a once-famous train linking the Tamil-majority north to the rest of the nation, stopped operation in 1990 after being attacked by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels who fought with the Island government to create an independent state for Tamil people.
India has helped provide the state of the art tracks and bridges that can accommodate train speeds of up to 120 kilometres per hour as part of the technical support.
Indian assisted other projects worth USD 1.63 billions are currently underway in the island country. The railway tracks and Jaffna station were damaged during the war between the LTTE and the government forces. It was said that the members of both the LTTE and the army used the abandoned railway coaches as bunkers.
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