Supporters of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa staged a protest today against Transport Minister Arjuna Ranatunga at the launch of the first train test run on the newly built 26KM Matara-Beliatta railway line.

The railway line is the first stage of the 113KM railway line from Matara to Kataragama. 

Rajapaksa's supporters clamoured that it was the former President who initiated the project and demanded the government attribute the success of the project to Rajapaksa. 

They also displayed a banner with the picture of Rajapaksa and his son, Namal Rajapaksa, on the first train that ran on the railway line. 

However, the project was first designed in 1991 under the presidency of Ranasinghe Premadasa. The initial work of the project was carried out by Wijepala Mendis, the then Transport Minister. 

The 26 KM Matara – Beliatta extension is the first new railway line to be constructed in Sri Lanka since Independence in 1948. This is the first stage of a 113KM railway line from Matara to Kataragama.