Abstract:
Colombo, the commercial capital of Sri Lanka is gradually being transformed into a Megacity with increasing
urbanization and industrialization and investment in infrastructure development. Having experienced the
consequences of unplanned and non-systematic nature of freight transportation in Colombo city, authorities have
come up with a megacity development strategic plan, namely, The Western Region Megapolis Master Plan in order
to reduce drawbacks associated with inland freight transportation in urban areas. It focuses on a two tier
transportation network structure where the freight is consolidated and value added at hub locations via planned
road network and transported to the port for shipping. In this scenario, the transportation structure which connects
the consolidation hub with the port and different spokes of the network can be considered as the elementary
operational unit of the logistics framework. For analysing operational feasibility of this scenario, simulation-based
modelling can be utilized in order to predict the future operational performance of the proposed logistics plan.
Having identified the elementary operational unit of functionality in the proposed logistics framework, a computerbased
simulation model of the elementary unit is developed using Arena software by Rockwell Automation and
validated in order to predict the performance of the two-tier transportation network. This quantitative model has the
capability to provide strategic decision-making ability by analysing different scenarios, in terms of traffic
congestion, road network utilization and the impact of different truck type combinations for optimum utilization of
truck fleet
