EOM&M Division


Expressway Operation Maintenance & Management Division


As the premier National Organization of the road sector, Road Development Authority is required to provide an adequate and efficient National Highways Network, to ensure mobility and accessibility at an acceptable level of safety and comport, in an environment friendly manner for the movement of people and goods for the socio-economic development of the nation. To fulfill this task they planned to develop an expressway network covering the whole country. As the initial step constructions of the Southern Expressway begins in 2003.


Southern Expressway is the first access control expressway in Sri Lanka which connects Kottawa and Matara. This project was named as Southern Transport Development Project (STDP). This was partially completed in 2011 from Kottawa interchange to Pinnaduwa interchange which connects with the Galle Port access road. As the second access control expressway the Colombo Katunayake Expressway (E-03) was opened to the public on 27th October 2013. As Pinnaduwa to Godagama section of the Southern Expressway was completed, it was opened for public on 15th March 2014. simultaneously, the Kottawa to Kothalawala section of Outer Circular Highway (E-02) also opened for public on the same day. Since the Outer Circular Highway is not completed yet, Kottawa to Kothalawala section is also operating under Southern Expressway.


Expressway Operation Maintenance and Management Division under the Road Development Authority is highly responsible for the maintenance and management operations of the expressway network in Sri Lanka. EOM&M Division is doing its’ operations under six main sections as follows.



User fee collection section


Traditionally funding for the roads and expressways has been provided through public financing. Public budgets are funded from the sources of taxes imposed on transport, fuel and vehicle registrations etc. However when facing difficulties in allocating the financial resources to critically needed maintenance mainly due to the larger needs for the new infrastructure for increasing network capacity. User chargers are the most extensively used and most rapidly growing model of funding and budgeting for Expressways and restricted access highways construction, maintenance and management. Tolling approaches to direct user fee mechanism that focuses on pricing distance travelled on individual facilities or regional levels network.


All the expressway users have to pay a fee which named as user fee according to the distance they travel and the type of the vehicle they are using. You can find those rates under Tariff Schedule.


User fee section is mainly doing the collection of user fee from the expressway users, issuing tickets, managing the collected money and all the operations regarding the user fee.


Traffic Controlling Section


There are two main sections under Traffic Controlling.



In addition to these main sections Expressway Police and Fire & Rescue Unit (Police - STF) are there coordinate with the Traffic controlling section.


Call Center and CCTV Inspection section


Call Center and CCTV Inspection section mainly for the support of the expressway users. The Emergency call number is 1969. The call center operators are on alert in 24 hours about the emergency calls from the expressway users. So in case of any emergency on the expressway at any time, users can contact us. They are cooperating with the Traffic and Patrolling unit and Fire and Rescue unit to solve the user problems and prevent primary or secondary traffic accidents.


CCTV inspection section is monitoring the entire expressway in 24 hours by using the CCTV cameras placed on the expressway. If there was any incident on the expressway, the CCTV inspection crew is providing the necessary videos to the authorized personal


Traffic and Patrolling Unit


The tasks of the Expressway Traffic and Patrolling Unit are to maintain the Expressways at the optimum condition to ensure traffic safety and smooth traffic flow. Non-recurring incidents such as accidents, landslides, floods or traffic congestion to threaten the optimum condition of the Expressway must be dealt with by promptly restoring the Expressway to a desirable state.


Patrolling is the most important activity in the expressway by the Traffic and Patrolling Unit. This is done by using patrol cars travelling along the expressway. During patrol the fallen objects are being removed vehicles stuck on the expressway are being dragged immediately in order to prevent traffic accidents on the expressway.


In case of any accidents on the expressway, the patrolling units assist with the traffic police, fire brigade or paramedics in rescue work. They also implement traffic control at the accident site preventing secondary accident and ensure that other vehicles move safely passing the accident site.


Traffic control during maintenance and repairs on the expressway is done by this unit. When carrying out the tasks like the pavement repairs, trimming of grass and replacement of damaged things by accidents, etc the appropriate traffic control measures are being carried out by this unit. Also they are responsible for traffic control in the harmful weather conditions.


Maintenance Section


Maintenance section is there to carry out all types of the maintenance operations related with the expressway. For examples, repairing damaged guard rails, cutting grass on both borders of the road, maintaining all the properties on the expressway. This section is responsible for the clearness of the expressway and the enclosed areas. They are checking for the pot holes, cracks, and other damages on the way and repair them properly. They are also responsible for maintaining gutters, culverts, etc., on the road sides. If they are in bad condition and need repairs the maintenance section must take the immediate actions to repair them in order to keep the expressway a safe place for users.


Mechanical Section


The main purpose of this section is to check the condition of the vehicles and mechanical equipments which are under EOM&M division. Almost all the resources of EOM&M division are under mechanical section. All the vehicles working on the expressway, all the A/C machines and other machines belong to the mechanical section. They are responsible for all the maintenance of those vehicles and the machines.


Electrical and Electronic Section


Electronic and Electrical section is there to deal with the products powered by or producing electricity. They are checking the condition of that kind of products, inspecting there conditions and do essential repairing. They are the people who are dealing with the urgent situations occurring because of the power cuts or emergency power failures in order to keep the smoothness of expressway operations.


IT Section


IT section attend to requirement identification, design, implementation and maintenance of computer and network based systems (User Fee Collection System, Content Management System, Bridge Information Management System, Asset Management System, etc.. ) associated with the operation of the expressway. And they are responsible for the network and data security of the User Fee Collection System. This section is also responsible for the CCTV monitoring system and Call Center. Besides Risk analysis, failure recovery events management in the data system, research and development of new network and information systems for the operation are carrying out by the IT Section. IT staff abide to stand-by in any case of emergency related to information and network based systems.