Dr Sarath obeysekera

Everyday I pass thtough Galle Face along the Port City Development and note that work is steadily streaming ahead .I wonder whether we will not  alive long  to see the entire devlopment after completion as such development  will take at least 10-15 years to achieve.

As a marine engineer and a investment  promoter I would like to suggest following to the decision  makers of the port city development .

Along the southern boundary of the development   a Marina is envisaged for yachts and leisure boat owners to patronize Colombo .These owners and tourists are cuurntly using Maldivian waters ,and it will be quite easy to entice t them to come to Colombo ,if we can accelerate Marina Devlopment section .

Break waters are bult already and few mooring paltforms and some infrausructure  in the Marina Section will be an attractive location for Yacht owners .

In Mutwal a repair and maintenance facility for yachts is being completed with a state of the art yacht docking device , which will augment development of the Marina concept

What we need to do is to ask Chinese to develop the Marina as a priority and update the regulatory aspects to make the yahct owners comfortable to arrive and park with minimum bureacratci procedures.

Next door to Marina ,there are few five  star hotels and bars and clubs which they can patronize .These facilities are not available in Maldives except in resorts.

Parallelly, Megapolis should invite local shipbuilders to build and operate ferry and passenger service to start from Galle Face Marina  to sail to Galle and Kalpitiya.

If Casino moguls  with Hayleys can introduce a floating casino to oparate while sailing ,I am sure all the gambling Chinese will come to Colombo

This is the development which need urgent attention and the next three years will be crucial to the government to show some tangible results to people.

We are sailing in troubled ecomonic-waters and we need to come out .

Dr Sarath obeysekera