CHOGM 2013 Traffic Plan For Colombo (With Map).

The dreaded CHOGM is almost upon us. Every two years this meeting of heads of state and their entourages snarls traffic in some host country, and this year its us. What we’ve done is taken this text traffic plan (thanks SueKiri) and drawn it on a map and written it out in a table. The parts marked dark red are officially going to be closed or blocked at random times. The parts in light red are connecting roads we assume will be bad as well.

GIF For Friday November 15th

On Friday, the VIPs will go to Nelum Pokuna, making Town Hall inaccessible for the rest of Colombo.

Executive Summary

Stay in your home or leave Colombo.

Dates	Days	Disasters
12th-14th	Tue-Thur	Avoid anything between airports and hotels. Airports means Katunayake and Ratmalana.
13th-14th	Wed-Thur	Avoid BMICH
15th	Friday	Avoid Nelum Pokuna (Town Hall) and BMICH
16th	Saturday	Avoid Waters Edge and BMICH
17th	Sunday	Avoid BMICH

Full Detail

We’ve translated this directly from the Police press release. Please excuse small typos and spelling differences. This is the somewhat exact closure times and what roads/junctions will be closed.

INDEX	PLACES OF CLOSURE	15 Nov	16 Nov	17 Nov
1	Slave Island Police Roundabout	08.45-09.45	07.00-08.00	07.00-08.00
2	Road Near Regal Cinema	08.45-09.45	07.00-08.00	07.00-08.00
3	D. R Wijewardhana, Gamini Roundabout will be closed for vehicles coming from Pettah	08.45-09.45	07.00-08.00	07.00-08.00
4	C.T.C. Junction	08.45-09.45	07.00-08.00	07.00-08.00
5	York Street, Chatham Street Junction	08.45-09.45	07.00-08.00	07.00-08.00
6	All vehicles that enter Galle Road between Old Parliament roundabout to Kollupitiya Junction	08.45-09.45	07.00-08.00	07.00-08.00
7	Elephant House Roundabout	08.45-09.45	07.00-08.00	07.00-08.00
8	Old J. O. C. Cambridge Junction	08.00-12.00
9	From Liberty Junction to Duplication Road Junction	08.45-09.45
10	Both sides of Flower Road, Ananda Cumaraswamy Road	08.00-12.00
11	Both sides of Pittala Junction, Flower Road	08.00-10.30	07.00-08.00	07.30-08.30
12	Hunupitiya Cross Road can exit to Dharmapala Mawatha	08.00-10.00	07.00-08.00	07.30-08.30
13	Park Street Dharmapala Mawatha Junction (residents only)	08.00-10.00	07.00-08.00	07.30-08.30
14	Lipton Circus – Only buses, residents and invitees can enter	08.00-12.00
15	Soyza roundabout – Only residents, invitees and mosque-goers can enter	08.00-12.00
16	Thummulla, Thurstan Road, 175/177 buses should go through Thummulla Road, Rajakeeya Mawatha, Reid Mawatha, Stanley Wijesundara Mawatha	08.30-10.15
17	Both sides of Colonel Jayawardene Mawatha, Dharmapala Mawatha, Ananda Cumaraswamy Mawatha	08.45-10.00	07.00-8.00	07.30-08.30
18	Reid Mawatha (Philip Gunawardene Mawatha), Rajakeeya Junction	08.00-12.00
19	Vidya, Wijerama Junction (residents and employees of the institutes only)	08.00-12.00
20	Gregory, Wijerama Junction (Residents and employees of the institutes only)	08.00-12.00
21	Baudhdhaloka Mawatha, Thunmulla (Stanmore Crescent Junction)
22	Bullers, Jawaththa Road Junction, Consistent Road, Bullers Lane (Residents and employees of the institutes only)	11.00-12.00
23	Bullers, Torrington Junction (Residents only)	10.00-12.00	11.00-12.00	11.00-12.00
24	Bullers, Longdon, Longdon Place Junction, Opposite SLBC (Residents and employees of the institutes only)	10.00-12.00
25	Sarana Road, Malalasekara Mawatha Junction, Entering Bullers Road	10.00-12.00
26	Bullers Road, Gregory Road Junction			11.00-12.00
27	Cemetery roundabout (Residents only)	11.00-12.00
28	De Saram Mawatha, Barnes Place	09.00-09.45
29	Kynsey Rd, Rosemead Place Junction, De Saram Road, Rosmead Place Junction	14th till Prince Charles departs
30	Wijerama Road, Ward Place and Horton Place	09.00-09.45
31	Poldoowa, Subhuthi Pura Junction		07.45-09.00	08.00-09.00
32	Sethsiripaya, Subhuthi Pura Junction (Entrance only for residents and those who go to the function)		07.45-09.00	08.00-09.00
33	Baththaramulla Junction (Entrance only for those who go to the function and those who work in institutes.)		07.45-09.00	08.00-09.00
34	Near the Speaker’s residence		07.45-09.00	08.00-09.00
35	U. L. Gunasekara Mawatha		07.45-09.00	08.00-09.00
36	Cooray Mawatha		07.45-09.00	08.00-09.00
37	Welikada Cross Road		07.45-09.00	08.00-09.00
38	Cotta Road, Ayurveda Hospital Junction		07.30-09.00	08.00-09.00
39	Both sides of Model Farm Junction, Time to time you can enter from Old Bullers Road to Cotta Road		07.30-09.00	08.00-09.00
40	Cemetery roundabout, Traveling to Borella through Baseline		07.30-09.00	08.00-09.00
41	Cemetery roundabout, Entering Bullers Road		11.00-12.00	11.00-12.00

General Stuff

Guests start arriving on Tuesday November 12th and continue till Thursday (the 14th). The new highway will make traffic from the Airport to Colombo not bad, but they will need to get to their hotels, messing up everything from Kelaniya on in, especially Baseline Road and Bauddhaloka Mawatha. Some private jets will also be arriving at Ratmalana Airport, messing up the Galle Road.

From the 13th there will be meetings and events at the BMICH, making traffic between there and the hotels bad. Specifically, avoid Bauddhaloka Mawatha. BMICH will be busy till the 17th.

The official opening is on the 15th, at Nelum Pokuna. This is near Town Hall and will basically mess up everything.

The main meetings are from the 16th-17th at Waters Edge in Battaramulla. This will mess up the Parliament Road for sure, and basically everything between there and the hotels.

CHOGM Event Calendar

Date	Day	Events	Locations
12th	Tuesday	– Heads Of State arriving from airports – Business Forum (Cinnamon Grand)	– Airports, Hotels – Cinnamon Grand
13th	Wednesday	– Heads Of State arriving – Foreign Ministers Meeting (BMICH) – Meeting on Harare Declaration (BMICH) – Business Forum (Cinnamon G)	– Airports, Hotels – BMICH – Cinnamon Grand
14th	Thursday	– Heads Of State Arriving – FMs Meeting (BMICH) – Civil Society Roundtable (BMICH) – Press Conferences (BMICH) – Business Forum (Cinnamon G)	– Airports, Hotels – BMICH – Cinnamon Grand
15th	Friday	– Opening And Conference (Nelum Pokuna) – Main Meetings (Waters Edge) – Youth Dialogue (BMICH) – Press Conferences (BMICH)	– Nelum Pokuna – Waters Edge – BMICH
16th	Saturday	– Main Meetings (Waters Edge) – Sports Breakfast (BMICH) – Press Conferences (BMICH)	– Waters Edge – BMICH
17th	Sunday	– Main Meetings (Waters Edge) – Concluding Press Conference (BMICH)	– Waters Edge – BMICH

Broadly, the heads of state arrive and they have to get to their hotels. Meanwhile events are starting up at BMICH. The thing kicks off on the 15th and they start having their main meetings at Waters Edge. The effect is that everything between Colombo 1 and 3 (where the hotels are) and Battaramulla and BMICH has to periodically and somewhat randomly close down to let them travel through.

CHOGM Traffic Plan (Unofficial)

Date	Day	Locations	Avoid
12th	Tuesday	– Airports, Hotels – Cinnamon Grand	– Airport Highway – Baseline Road – Galle Road from Ratmalana – anything leading to a hotel (everything)
13th	Wednesday	– Airports, Hotels – BMICH – Cinnamon Grand	-Bauddhaloka Mawatha – Airport Highway – Baseline Road – Galle Road from Ratmalana – anything leading to a hotel (everything)
14th	Thursday	– Airports, Hotels – BMICH – Cinnamon Grand	-Bauddhaloka Mawatha – Airport Highway – Baseline Road – Galle Road from Ratmalana – anything leading to a hotel (everything)
15th	Friday	– Nelum Pokuna – Waters Edge – BMICH	Anything between the hotels Town Hall BMICH Battaramulla. Parliament Road Bauddhaloka Mawatha Union Place Ward Place Horton Place, etc.
16th	Saturday	– Waters Edge – BMICH	Parliament Road Bauddhaloka Mawatha Union Place Ward Place Horton Place, etc.
17th	Sunday	– Waters Edge – BMICH	Parliament Road Bauddhaloka Mawatha Union Place Ward Place Horton Place, etc.

If you take the airports, hotels, BMICH and Waters Edge as endpoints, that effectively snarls all of Colombo. The only parts that are relatively safe are Colombo 5 (Havelock Town), Wellawatte, Nugegoda, Dehiwala and Mount Lavinia.