Colombo Port City a dreamer’s paradise

A Draft Bill converts the Colombo Port City with sweeping tax incentives etc into a special economic zone. The Sri Lanka Government’s long distance view looks hazy and should change its lenses and see what is going to be its near future.

Even before the commencement of this landfill from the sea, there were beautiful attractive computer drawings of the Colombo Port City by the China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) owned by China Communications Construction Company Ltd. They showed high rise buildings, broad avenues, beautiful parks with walkways, canals, marinas etc, a city more modern than Singapore or Hong Kong and letting to decay our colonial City of Colombo as a relic of the past.

With the changes of governments from the time the landfill commenced, the work on this Port City has been delayed for almost five years and having to pay a large sum of money or granting more land for the delay. At present it is a land mass with not even a blade of grass and has zero value to either Sri Lanka or foreign investors except China I presume.

What baffles the ordinary citizen of this country is, why a large part of the land mass has been given on freehold and part on a 90 year lease to China. The chances are, other than China, no country will be interested in buying land which at present has no water, electricity, waste disposal etc. To develop its land holding, the Sri Lanka Government will have to borrow money from China and become further indebted and subservient to China and finally surrender the whole landmass on a platter to China. Concerned citizen.

Kohuwela