The total population had risen from 14.8 million to 18.7 million between 1981 and 2001, and the population growth is reducing and comparatively small about 1.10%, as shown in Table 1. The census, which was scheduled for 1991, could not be conducted due to unsettled condition in Sri Lanka. The census in 2001 which is the 13th in the series was conducted after a time-lag of 20 years, where population statistics were officially taken with certain limitations. More than population increases; the increasing fleets have had a damaging effect on the number of road accident in Sri Lanka. The vehicle population has risen from 0.213 million in 1977 to 1.78 million in 2001.Over 1.06 million motor vehicle of all varieties were registered during the period between 1990 and 2001. The total number of vehicles registered in 2003 was 2,073,869, and in year 2004 this increased to 2,297,711, with by an increase of 223,842. A sharp increase was observed in the motorcycles segment, where there were 86,877 registrations in 2003 and increased to 124,474 in year 2004. Moreover, there is an extraordinarily increases in number of three-wheelers, a mode of Paratransit providing door-to- door service, between 1994 and 2001, and currently about 240,000 three-wheelers in operation in the Island, and from year 2001 there is again a sharp increase in registration with 36,204 in 2003, and again 43,789 in 2004. In comparison, sales of cars have dropped slightly with most of the public preferring to buy motorbikes and dual purpose vehicles instead. The total numbers of car registration in 2003 were 211,084 and this dropped to 119,116 in year 2004, and has been attributed to the controversial tax which was introduced in year 2004. But during last two decade approximately 25,000 km road were added to the national grid, mostly in rural areas. (Author/publisher).
Abstract