S D Moorthy, the Indian Consul General in Jaffna said that India will be fully restoring the Colombo-Jaffna rail link by mid-October this year.

 “Yal Devi”, the iconic train, which used to ply between Colombo and Jaffna till it was destroyed sometime in the 1980s during the civil war, will greatly ease travel between North and South Sri Lanka.

The Indian Consul told that the project will be taken up by the Indian public sector company IRCON and that the new railway would be of international standards.

S D Moorthy made these remarks while addressing the Indian Independence Day gathering in Jaffna.

The Consul General also said that 20 Tamil Nadu fishermen, held at the Anuradhapura jail, were released by a magistrate in Madu on Friday. Along with the 74 released from Jaffna on Thursday, they will be repatriated to India on Saturday.