<span style="color: #222222;">Sri Lankan government today signed an agreement with IRCON International for upgrading of a railway track with Indian concessional financing of around 91.26 million US dollars. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The agreement is for up gradation of over century old track of 130 km located between Colombo and Jaffna in Tamil -majority northern province. The contract agreement was signed by Sunil Kumar Choudhury, Chairman & Managing Director, IRCON International Limited, and L.P.Jayampathy, Secretary, Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation of Sri Lanka. <br />'' <br />'' Sri Lankan Transport Minister thanked the Indian government for its generous assistance in development of transport sector in the island nation, including Railways and air. He said Palali airport near Jaffna is expected to be connected by air services to South India by early September.  <br />'' <br />'' India has so far committed Line of Credit worth around 1.3 billion USD for development of railway sector in Sri Lanka. The restoration of arterial railway lines, connecting the North and the South after decades of conflict, was undertaken under Indian concessional financing. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">India has so far upgraded around 300 km of railway track and provided modern signaling & telecommunication system for around 330 km in Sri Lanka. India has also contributed substantially to capacity building of Sri Lankan railway personnel. This project is in continuation of India's efforts to partner with Sri Lanka in people-oriented connectivity projects in Sri Lanka.</span><br />'' <br />''