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By,Nilan Wikramasinghe
went through the 18 bends, down the Kandy Mahiyanganaya road to be a true excitement. Highlight, be it the ascent or descent. As the road used to be only 3 to 5 meters wide in the hilly area with narrow single lane sections, drivers had to stop their vehicles to pass earlier. This time however things were totally different. From a distance the renovated road stretch from Udatenna to Mahiyanganaya, alias the 18 bends seemed to gleam with the promise of a less bumpy ride than usual. The road has been winded up to 15 meters and carpeted from Udatenna to Mahiyanganaya. As I navigated the 18th bend, which was our first sharp winding bend on our ascent towards Kandy, I waved at a merry child who grinned at me from a car coming from the opposite direction as our vehicles drew level. This would have been an impossible gesture during the single lane day of the bend terrain. The renovated road comprises of the standard two wide lanes, convex mirrors and an upgraded system of road signals, allowing the drivers smooth sailing towards their respective destinations. But for more than one and half centuries, this road linking Kandy and Padiyathalawa through
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Digana, Teldeniya, Medamahanuwara, Hunnasgiriya and Udadumbara the most picturesque hilly terrain in the Kandy district and Passara, Mahiyanaganaya in the Uva Province was the only road that linked these main cities until the construction of Raja Mawatha in the early 1990s. The renovated road comprises two routes, a chain of protective fences and a proper and accurate system of road signals. The building of a place for travellers to rest is also under construction. It is becoming an attractive road among the local and foreign travellers as it is a very rare experience for them to pass this terrain during their Kandy to Mahiyangana or to the Eastern part of the country. For many children and also adults, counting these 18 bends during their journey and to have a brief stopover at the top of the hilly part to enjoy the picturesque scene in the valley of Mahiyanagana from the top of the hills was a very enjoyable experience. However this pathway can be used to go to heaven of tourism. These developments declare Sri Lankan enormous future and we need to make our motherland colourful with the helping hand of colourful tourism.