‘Towering story of waste’ set to open
A HUGE green and purple communications tower in Sri Lanka financed with Chinese debt that has become a symbol of the ousted Rajapaksa clan’s closeness to Beijing will finally open this week, its operator said on Monday (12).
The 350-metre (1,155-feet) Lotus Tower – visible from all over Colombo and built for an estimated $113 million (£96.5m) – has been plagued by corruption claims since construction began in 2012 under former president Mahinda Rajapaksa.
It is one of several “white elephant” projects built with Chinese loans under Rajapaksa. He is the elder brother of Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who was ousted from the presidency in July after months of protests over Sri Lanka’s dire economic crisis.
The state-owned Colombo Lotus Tower Management Company said they had decided to open its observation deck to visitors from Thursday (15) and earn ticket sales to minimise losses.
“We can’t keep this closed. The maintenance costs are huge,” chief executive Prasad Samarasinghe told reporters. “We want to earn the upkeep of the building and turn this into an entertainment centre.”
The company hopes to rent out office and shop space, including a revolving restaurant just below the observation deck offering views of the capital as well as the Indian Ocean.
Broadcasters say the structure, which cannot cover the island nor improve current transmissions from a mountain in the centre of Sri Lanka, is of no use as a communications tower.
A local media outlet on Monday called it a “towering story of pride and waste,” a vanity project of Rajapaksa who wanted a copy of Beijing’s 405m Central Radio and TV tower.
During his decade in power from 200515, Rajapaksa borrowed from China for infrastructure projects which failed, including a deep-sea port handed to Beijing in 2017 on a 99-year lease.
Sri Lanka’s current economic crisis is partly blamed on Chinese debt which accounts for over 10 per cent of Colombo’s $51 billion (£43.5bn) in external borrowings.
The country defaulted on its debt in April. Earlier this month, it agreed to a conditional bailout of $2.9bn (£2.4bn) from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). It depends on Sri Lanka striking a deal with creditors, including China, to restructure its borrowings.