For the festival season, the government has taken steps to temporarily allow the sale of products in road reserves belonging to the Road Development Authority.
The Minister of Transport, Highways and Mass Media, Dr. Bandula Gunawardena, said this while attending the new bus distribution ceremony held in Galle.
“The people of our country lost the opportunity to celebrate the Sinhala Hindu New Year as usual in the past two years due to the crises including the Covid epidemic situation in the country. Therefore, many manufacturers had to face many difficulties in selling their products. The Ministry of Transport and Highways is working to give a temporary permission for the festival season to such entrepreneurs who are self-employed and carry out small-scale production at home to sell their products from the side of the road without any charge.
Accordingly, in the specific areas that are allocated in connection with the road reserves, with the approval and supervision of the regional secretary of the respective area, the manufacturers are temporarily entitled to this permission to sell their products without constructing permanent stalls.
At present, we have set aside such zones for the sale of clothes and garments in several places including Maharagama city.
Similarly, we are working to give the opportunity to the producers who are temporarily engaged in self-employment to sell their products directly to the consumers, in all other parts of the island, until the festival season is over.” said the minister.
