UDA’S Urban Regeneration Project for Colombo underway

The city of Colombo is on the verge of rapid development, and all development projects in Colombo have identified that the biggest barrier to initiating these projects is the spread of these underserved and derelict community clusters, and to overcome this barrier, the Urban Development Authority (UDA) initiated the Urban Regeneration Project (URP) in 2011.

In accordance with the government policy to enhance the livelihoods of underprivileged communities, the UDA has taken the initiative to construct housing units to relocate over 68,000 families, spread across 900 acres in the Colombo district. The main objective of this project is to eliminate shanties, slums and other dilapidated housing from the city by relocating dwellers in modern houses with the provision of better livelihoods.

In the 900 acres obtained by the relocations, the plan is to build housing units in 300acres, 150 acres will be reserved for the amusement/ entertainment of the general public while the rest of the 450 acres are expected to be utilised for the mixed development projects of the government.

More than 6,951 families from 15 housing projects have been settled from 2013 to date, and the construction of another 13 housing projects with 8,466 housing units have been almost completed and are ready for resettlement.

Since the day these projects were taken over by the Ministry of Megapolis and Western Development the construction process have been fast-tracked and streamlined by Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka, making sure the relocation takes place within closer vicinities of the residential areas of these underprivileged personnel.

This means that the dayto-day living, schooling, occupation and other will not be disturbed, and this decision has been one of the major reasons for the URP to be very successful.

Coinciding with the Urban Regeneration Project as a concept of the minister to uplift the education and to improve the social livelihood of the children,‘nana Diriya’ educational programme was launched. Nana Diriya identifies various abilities and talents of the youth and enhances these abilities of various arts such as music, drama and other talents.

Another programme is on the verge of initiation, named ‘Ridma Sariya’. ‘Jawayata Diriya’ is another programme initiated to enhance the leadership skills and engage in sports activities while ‘Divi Diriya’ is a vocational training programme conducted to strengthen the abilities of those who are expecting job opportunities to have better prospects. Also inaugurating management committees, building sports grounds and complexes closer to the vicinity comprised with recreation centres for the public to be involved in extracurricular activities have made the Urban Regeneration Project a highly commendable project among all.

Under the guidance and advises of Patali Champika Ranawaka, the completed building consisting of 437 housing units, ‘Siyapath Sewana’ at Dematagoda is allocated to those who are relocated from Maitland Place, Colombo 07, 55th Lane, and those who had to be relocated from their residences due to the renovation and reconstruction of the Kelani Valley railway track, and the next phase consisting of 266 housing units are due to be completed in July 2018.