Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Refuting claims that nuts and bolts worth millions of rupees had been removed and stolen from the New Kelani Bridge, Transport Minister Bandula Gunawardane said these nuts and bolts cannot be removed so easily as special tools are needed to do so.

The Minister told Parliament that no nuts and bolts had been removed from the bridge and that only the relevant engineering companies were in possession of the special tools required to remove them.

Responding to a question by MP Dayasiri Jayasekara, he said only some GI pipes PVC pipes of the drainage system, some parts of the air conditioning system of the communication room connected to the bridge and colour bulbs fixed along the bridge have been stolen.

The Minister said the total value of the stolen items from the bridge was Rs. 5.9 million. 

He said Rs. 294.4 million worth of items such as brass wire, GI pipes and lamp posts of the Colombo Katunayake Expressway had been stolen.

He said brass wires of the electric cable system of the Katunayake Expressway had been stolen during the power crisis and Covid-19 lockdown period between September, 2021 and July 2023.(Ajith Siriwardana and Yohan Perera)