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The Development of Transportation in Ceylon, 1800-1947-by Michael Roberts Source:Thuppahis L. A. Wickremeratne aka Ananda Wickremeratne** The history of transportation in Ceylon forms an interesting backdrop to the economic developments of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In the beginning of the nineteenth century however, military exigencies rather than economic considerations were the determining factors in the construction of roads by the colonial government. Understandably, much attention was centered on the recently acquired Kandyan territories over which the British were determined to strengthen their hold. The Satinwood Bridge at Peradeniya (a description questioned by /Gerald Peiris) The principal mode of access from Colombo to Kandy lay along a line of military forts and fortresses. This route which in later times came to be known as the old road to Kandy,[1] ran through Hanvalla, Avissavalla, Ruvanvalla, Hettimulla, Attapitiya, where fort king had been constructed, and across the Balana pass to Kandy. From time to time ...