Extra land for public use

The new agreement between the Sri Lankan government and China for the Colombo Port City and Financial City has renegotiated extra land for public use, the Daily News reliably learns.

According to the new Port City agreement, the new park area will be eight times larger than the Galle Face Green. Apart from this, the project will also create a 3 km-long beach area (13 hectares) for public use.Only 35 percent of the reclaimed land will be occupied by buildings.

According to official sources, all infrastructure within the reclaimed area will be built by the Project Company, without placing that burden on the Government.

As per the agreement signed by the previous regime, infrastructure and utility connections to the periphery of the site will remain the responsibility of the Government. However, under the new 2016 agreement, the Government has the right to request the Project Company to enter into a Public-Private-Partnership for the provision of such infrastructure.

Another change is the maintenance of the reclaimed area and associated infrastructure which was previously assigned to the Sri Lanka Ports Authority.

Now, a new JV company between the Project Company and a party to be nominated by the Government will undertake the Estate Management responsibility, working in cooperation with relevant local authorities such as the Colombo Municipal Council.

Apart from this, the land used for public purposes such as roads, parks, pedestrian walkways etc. would be increased by 44 percent, which was the main reason for the expansion of the reclaimed area from 233 to 269 hectares.

This would provide the general public with an overall area of 91 hectares for their use and another 62 hectares to the Government for development purposes.

The marketable land is estimated to be over Rs. 200 Billion going on today’s value. According to the new agreement, 57 percent of the total 269 hectares of reclaimed land would be for the benefit of the Government and the people of Sri Lanka.