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Western Province to become mega city of Colombo - PM

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said yesterday that the Colombo district will be turned into a megacity and a new urban district will transform it to become the commercial, economic, trade and investment hub in the Indian Ocean region.

“We have to build a megacity within the country for Sri Lanka to be an export powerhouse in the world. All the cities within the Western Province will be developed to build this megacity. According to the ‘Mega-City Structure Plan’, the entire Western Province, which includes the Colombo, Gampaha, Kalutara districts and Homagama and Avissawella areas will be developed as mega towns, like the Colombo City.

The Premier addressing the gathering after opening the ‘Nila Medura’ the new building of the Internal and Home Affairs Ministry at Elvitigala Mawatha in Narahenpita yesterday said the center of the mega-city will be a Colombo district. The Nila Medura, the 21- storey new building of the Home Affairs Ministry constructed at a cost of Rs. 5,583 million will play one of the major roles of this mega city project.

The Port Access Elevated Highway from the New Kelani Bridge and long-awaited elevated highway Project from Rajagiriya to New Kelani bridge, the new light railway project are being implemented while the other infrastructure facilities will be improved for the new megacity.

He said that Colombo district Secretariat located in this building while serving the public will carry out two purposes mainly. One is developing Colombo district as a new urban district and megacity while the second purpose is reclaiming 600 acres from the sea to the Colombo district for development purposes. 

“We faced a spate of problems during the last five years including repayment of loans, obtaining the GSP plus facility, developing education and health and creating reconciliation among the communities. But, several issues like the Easter Sunday attack, severe drought and floods happened when we were addressing these problems. However, we have been able to tackle all these problems successfully without obstructing development activities. The economy is being developed now and we have to go for modernisations. It is necessary to improve the export-based economy in the country to address all these issues. We cannot rely on self-sufficiency in villages and we also have to use the latest technology to march forward. Today, there is a shortage of 90000 skilled people in the IT sector. The agriculture sector will have to be modernized within the next 10 years to improve export based agriculture,” he added.

District, Regional and Village level administrations should be strengthened to solve the people’s problems,” he added.

The Ashoka Somarathne foundation on the request of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had donated land worth Rs.80 million to house the building.

(Daily News)