The last part of a road linking Jaffna peninsula with the rest of Sri Lanka was set to open on Monday despite a dispute over who will control bus rights.
The opening of the A9, which has seen some of the worst fighting in the island's nearly two-decade civil war, would allow people to move freely between areas controlled by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the government. It is the first time it has opened in 12 years.
"As far as we know, it [the road opening] is going ahead," said Nils Lundin, spokesman for the Sri Lankan Monitoring Mission, the Norwegian-run group monitoring a ceasefire the government and Tigers signed last month.
But local media reported the LTTE was demanding it be able to run its own bus service through areas the rebels control, or have state-run buses pay a fee to do so. The government had rejected this, saying buses should be allowed to run directly from the south to Jaffna, something unimaginable before the truce was signed.
The opening of the road has been a long-time demand of Jaffna residents, allowing them to avoid either costly air travel or a long sea trip when leaving for elsewhere in the country.
About 64,000 people have died in nearly two decades of fighting as the LTTE battled for a separate Tamil state in the north and east.
The highway opening comes just before Mr Velupillai Prabhakaran, the reclusive leader of the Tamil Tigers, meets the media for the first time in a decade to discuss the peace process.