New laws governing Port City to be presented to parliament early this year
The new laws under which Port City will be governed are to be presented to Parliament early this year, the government said. These plans were revealed by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremeisnghe and Megapolis and Western Region Development Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka, who were on an inspection tour to Port City in Colombo last evening.
“The new laws under which Port City will be governed will be brought in this year. The reality behind this project is that Sri Lanka is going to have a future. However future will not be secured overnight as it will be a time consuming process,” Wickremesinghe said.
“This will be a centre for providing financial and legal services and also it will have recreation facilities including a park. Sri Lankans will be proud of this project. The infrastructure facilities will be in place at Port City by 2020 It will be a modern city which one cannot imagine.
Port City would be a separate financial district. A part of it would be a city where 200,000 people could live in. This city will have all modern facilities. It will be one of the major investments of China Harbour. Ministry of Western Region Development is working with China Harbour on this project. This is a project which gives new life to the Sri Lankan economy,” Wickremesinghe added. Minister Ranawaka who elaborated more on the project said the new laws would be introduced early this year.
He said Port City would not be governed by the Colombo Municipal Council and therefore new laws were needed.
He said an elevated highway would come in from Peliyagoda and would go up to Kollupitiya via the Chaithya Road junction. He also said there would be an underground tunnel from Chaithya Road junction to Kollupitiya.
“One could also access the Port City through light train which will be extended to Kollupitiya,” he noted.
The total cost of the Port City project, which reclaims 269 hectares, is estimated to be US dollar1.4 billion. This would comprise 178 hectares of developed land while 116 hectares of land would be leased out to China Construction Company Ltd.
Targeted reclamation is to be completed in June 2019 while there will be a 25-year development period. The project is expected to create more than 80,000 jobs.