YAHAPALANA AND INDUSTRIALISATION Part 2
Posted on September 23rd, 2018

KAMALIKA PIERIS

Yahapalana has a grand industrial plan. Here it is. Sri Lanka will be transformed into a fully developed country by 2050. The main thrust will be the Western Megapolis and the two connecting corridors which will cover nine million people, said Yahapalana.

The Western Region Megapolis Plan covers the three districts of the Western Province. They will form a Megapolis of interconnected metropolitan areas. There will be a Logistics City, a Forest City, an Aero City, and a Tech city.  The Logistics City will include Colombo Port and Bandaranaike International Airport. I could not find information on the other three Cities. There will be a Multimodal Transport Hub at Fort/Pettah area. There will be a Light Rail Transit system, elevated highways and modernized railway, all interconnected and all linked to the proposed Multimodal Transport Hub.” The project will cost USD40 billion and will take 15 years.

The Port City of Colombo was a Mahinda Rajapaksa investment. Yahapalana has forgotten that it was planning to get rid of the Port city as soon as it came to power. Now it claims all the credit for the project.

The Port City Project, involving reclamation of 269 hectares, will have the Colombo International Financial Centre as its centerpiece, says Yahapalana. It will bring in nearly USD 15 billion in primary and secondary FDIs create an estimated 80,000 odd jobs and house 275,000 residents on the fringes of an expanded city. The intention is to develop a business area which has an investment climate which would rank in the top 10 in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Index. After that Yahapalana will turn the Port city into another Singapore or Dubai.

the Port City which is expected to be the most vibrant part of the Maritime City will bring an exciting opportunity to innovate, design and develop a New World-Class City based on international experiences especially adapted to the Sri Lankan context and the site specific conditions, continued Yahapalana happily. The new city will tap the intrinsic values of the region and environment to create a new ideal modern community for business, living and leisure. This will help attract companies and investors, to ensure it will become a beacon of excellence for Sri Lanka, representing an ambitious yet achievable vision, said Yahapalana.

Yahapalana also has plans for the Beira Lake area in Colombo. Beira Lake will be developed according to the Ranmasu Pura Development Plan, prepared by Centre for Livable Cities (Singapore),    Temasek Foundation (Singapore), Singapore Corp Enterprises and UDA. It will be funded by the World Bank. The Beira Lake area will now be referred to as Ranmasu Pura.

The first stage of such land development will begin by 2018. There are lands owned by several government agencies and there is more land which belongs to both the government and private individuals or companies. Most of the government agencies, such as the Ports Authority and Lanka Sathosa, have agreed to release their lands for the proposed project.

This Plan aims to restore the Beira Lake and turn it into the most scenic asset of Colombo by 2035. The area surrounding Beira Lake will be developed as the main economic area connecting with the Port City project. Lands in the immediate vicinity of Beira Lake will be used for hotels and tourism activities. Lands located near Vauxhall Street are to accommodate a leisure park for the public.

Two Urban Corridors will be developed soon, promised Yahapalana. One along the 134 km-long Colombo-Kandy Central Expressway and the other along the 241 km-long Southern Highway leading to the Hambantota Port and Mattala Airport.   Investors will be then be able to target 9 million people living around the Expressway network linking Colombo-Kandy and Hambantota.”

Industrial zones are planned in the Kurunegala/Kuliyapitiya areas of the North-Western Province. The government will create three new Board of Investment (BOI) zones at Bingiriya, Mawathagama, Milleniya and Matara. A massive industrial park will be set up in Milleniya, Kalutara at a cost of Rs.3.5 billion. Rojana Industrial Park Public Ltd of Thailand, a joint venture between Japan’s Nippon Steel and Thailand’s Vinichbutr Group, will operate and manage this industrial park.

The Southern corridor will include three large eco-friendly Tourist Resorts of over 500 acres each in addition to a fully restored Galle Heritage Fort. There will be a Ruhuna Industrial Development Corporation   through which the Ruhuna area would be developed into an industrial zone and hundreds of factories would be set up. Among these will be an oil refinery, an LNG facility, a dockyard and cement factory. Negotiations for these have already started.  The land for these projects will be identified by the Ruhuna Development Authority.

Surbana Jurong a Singapore government-owned consultancy company is preparing a master Plan for the Trincomalee area. South Korea will    provide technical assistance to set up a Tech City in Homagama and an Aero City in Katunayake. South Korea and Andhra Pradesh, (India) will develop Kurunegala and Kuliyapitiya areas.  Japan will help develop Kandy area, announced Yahapalana.

One Response to “YAHAPALANA AND INDUSTRIALISATION Part 2”

  1. Christie Says:

    “Ranmau”

    What is that?

    All this reminds me Banda’a plans in 1956 that destroyed the well thought and strong foundation laid by the government that lost.

    Like “Yahapaalana” Banda was a puppet of India and Indian Colonial Parasites.

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