"We had military personnel manning a few selected check points in the city...... They will be replaced by the police," military spokesman Brig Ruwan Wanigasuriya said.
Wanigasuriya said the change would reflect the improved security situation in the country which witnessed three decades of violence during the civil war with the Tamil tigers.
During the height of the three year military campaign against the LTTE, thousands of troops were deployed to carry out road checks of vehicles to prevent the Tamil rebels from transporting deadly explosives and their suicide bombers.