Transport and infrastructure in Sri Lanka
Our listing of the primary kinds of transport compares the infrastructure of Sri Lanka with the average of all countries in Asia. The main traffic and transport routes are in good condition, but do not reach the level of the leading industrial nations.In terms of the length of its rail network, Sri Lanka ranks 90th in the world with 0.07 meters per inhabitant. In total, the rail network is 1,562 kilometers long. Freight traffic on the rails most recently totaled 127.39 million tons and kilometers traveled. Passenger traffic reached 7.41 billion passenger-kilometers in 2015.
The waterways listed refer to inland traffic on rivers and canals. The number of ports includes those located on the total 1,340 km of coastline. In 2020, about 6.85 million freight containers were transported.
› Airports in Sri Lanka
Back to overview: Sri Lanka
Road traffic
The network of roads and highways has a total length of 114,093 km. For each of the country's 22.16 million inhabitants, this corresponds to 5.15 meters. This puts Sri Lanka in 108th place in the global ranking. However, the country's population density must also be taken into account, which is relatively high at around 338 inhabitants per km². The higher the population density of a country, the shorter the average distance traveled.With an average of 3197 traffic fatalities per year (2012 - 2019), road traffic in Sri Lanka is considered reasonably safe. This corresponds to around 4.3 accident fatalities per 15.0 inhabitants per year. By comparison, this figure is 12.2 in the USA and 17.1 worldwide.
In Sri Lanka, left-hand traffic is the rule on the roads, i.e. you drive in the left lane and overtake on the right. Oncoming traffic comes to meet you on the right side. Here you can also find an overview of all countries with left-hand traffic.
Sri Lanka | |||
| total | per 1 mio inhabitants | per km² | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Roadways | 114,100 km | 5,149.53 km | 1,738.96 m |
| Railroads | 1,600 km | 70.50 km | 23.81 m |
| Waterways | 160 km | 7.22 km | 2.44 m |
| Commercial harbors | 90 | 4.06 | 0.001 |
| Airports | 8 | 0.36 | 0.122 |
Asia | |||
| total | per 1 mio inhabitants | per km² | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Roadways | 14,699,500 km | 3,162.10 km | 459.66 m |
| Railroads | 280,000 km | 60.24 km | 8.76 m |
| Waterways | 260,300 km | 55.99 km | 8.14 m |
| Commercial harbors | 46,054 | 9.91 | 0.001 |
| Airports | 1,012 | 0.22 | 0.000 |
Data sources used
• Global Health Observatory Data Repository (World Health Organization)• UNCTAD
• Internation Union of Railways (UIC)
• CIA Factbook
• OECD Statistics
• Wikipedia (german)
Largest airports and airlines in Sri Lanka
Climate details in Sri Lanka
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