Ferry service between Sri Lanka and India to resume

Sri Lanka and India will sign a memorandum of Agreement (Mou) to resume the ferry service between Sri Lanka's Thalaimannar of the northwestern coast and Rameswaram in South India.

A draft agreement to resume the ferry service disrupted by Sri Lanka's separatist war, has been prepared according to the India's High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Ashok Kantha.

"We've finalized the draft of the agreement," Indian High Commissioner has said adding that "The two countries had agreed in principle on starting the ferry services."

Sri Lanka's protracted war disrupted the ferry service between the two countries across the Gulf of Mannar.

A train service operated from Sri Lankan capital Colombo and Thalaimannar connecting passengers from Colombo and Dhanushkody in Rameswaram before the war escalated and the Tamil Tiger rebels occupied the region. The train track was abandoned due to the terrorist activities of the LTTE.

India has granted a credit line to Sri Lanka to rebuild the rail track to Thalaimannar from Medawachchiya.

The two countries recently signed a commercial agreement to reconstruct the track in two phases. IRCON International, an Indian company constructing the railway line will lay the 43-kilometer track from Medawachchiya to Madhu tracks in the first phase at a cost of US $ 81.3 million while Madhu to Thalaimannar segment will be built at a cost of US $ 149.74 million.