Commercialisation making life unbearable for Colombo residents
The rapid change in Colombo’s skyline and proliferation of restaurants, offices and other commercial buildings in residential areas in the city, have become a nuisance to long-term residents in the country’s commercial capital.
Noise and dust pollution, parking issues, blocked sewers and increased traffic on byroads are some of the problems that residents in the city encounter on a daily basis, as construction of new buildings goes unchecked, while the leasing of houses for commercial purposes too adds to the menace.
Richard Sugirtharajasingam (72), a consultant engineer residing in Colombo 3, told the Sunday Times that the traffic increase on his road was unbearable. This follows the swift commercialisation of the city’s streets. “I request the authorities to do something to curtail the traffic along byroads, as residents are greatly inconvenienced. The resulting dust and noise pollution is i n s u f f e r a b l e, ” M r. Sugirtharajasingam said.
He said that restaurants and large offices ought to be confined to the main roads and not allowed in narrow bylanes, adding that, lack of proper planning is making life unbearable for Colombo residents.
“These restaurants are a menace. They lack parking facilities, so customers park on the narrow byroads, causing traffic congestion. There are also issues with the sewerage system. Drains get blocked when the number of people using the road’s sewer lines increases.”
He said that, in most countries, residents were allocated parking slots on the road adjoining their house. “But this doesn’t happen here. I have great difficulty parking my vehicle.”
K Gunanayagam (85), a resident of over 40 years in his property in Colombo 4, said he had not been informed by the authorities when they started commercialisation of the area. “They expanded the road on my side of the street, while leaving the other the side as it was. We claimed compensation from the Colombo Municipal Council for this, but didn’t receive any reply,” Mr Gunanayagam said.
“This house was transferred to me by my sister over 40 years ago. My daughter and her family live upstairs. They had a car, but found many parking related issues. For us, the biggest problem is noise pollution. Bikes whiz past in the dead of night, which disturbs us. We have request- ed the Council to construct speed bumps on the road, but haven’t received any response on this either,” he said.
Commissioner L R L Wickramaratne said the CMC no longer had the authority to look into ventures in land areas exceeding 4,000 sq ft.
He also said the process of converting residential properties into commercial ventures was under the Urban Development Authority’s (UDA) purview.
“Any complaint regarding inconveniences caused by converted properties should be directed to the UDA. However, we look into sewerage issues. We do not allow highrise buildings to use the existing sewer lines. They are supposed to construct new sewer lines at their expense,” he said.
UDA Chairman Dr Jagath Munasinghe said that residential zones do not mean that only houses can be built there. “There are provisions for small restaurants, cafes, grocery stores and other commercial ventures. It only means the area should have ‘mostly’ residential p r o p e r t i e s, ” D r Munasinghe said.
He said the UDA didn’t have to inform everyone personally that an area was being commercialised. “The plan is prepared and the draft given to the local authority for public display for 60 days. We then get public opinion. We assess and take in any worthwhile criticism and/or recommendations.”
Dr Munasinghe said his authority responded to complaints promptly. “We send an inspecting officer to make an assessment of the area and the issue. We get complaints that are baseless and are due to personal grudges. However, we take legal action, if need be, against genuine complaints, consequent to our assessment.