“UDA in mega land-lease deals”
Nimal Perera, Chairman of the Urban Development Authority (UDA) has sent the following response to last week’s report in the Business Times under the above heading:
“The criticism in the above article against the UDA of not following proper tender procedure in alienating lands is a misconception of the correct picture. We believe that the Sunday Times being a paper read by different segment of society the information needs to be published in a fair manner.
For your information, we wish to clarify that some of the lands earmarked for developments are connected with some legal and physical constraints and in such a situation the UDA is compelled to entertain unsolicited proposals because of the fact that the investors are required to be mindful about the ground realities and the time taken for resolving the issues. Besides, the clearing of issues connected to those landscontained (?) with some degree of uncertainty. The calling of public tenders for leasing of such unclear lands is practically impossible and in such situations UDA has no option other than entertaining unsolicited proposals to promote the developments. The land alienation policy has provision to entertain unsolicited proposals under special circumstances subject to screening the investors’ credentials by the Standing Cabinet Appointed Review Committee (SCRC) and the BOI. However the lease consideration is determined by the government Chief Valuer and alienation is done maintaining maximum possible transparency while adhering to the government land alienation guidelines. In fact the UDA has advertised two land parcels in public newspapers as well as in the UDA website mentioned in the above article except the property at Kandy which was connected with some legal commitment and as a result UDA was compelled to conclude the transition as per the legal advice. Had the writer consulted the UDA when he got sensitive information from a politician, the UDA could have explained the correct perception rather than publishing misleading information creating a bad impression on the UDA among the readers.
It is the fact that the UDA being a responsible government agency functioning under the Ministry of Defense and Urban Development is always trying its best to develop urban areas in the country particularly the city of Colombo to be transformed as the Comercial Hub of Asia in line with the Mahinda Chinthana Vision for future. Our objectives is to develop the urban areas as attractive places for investors as well as to improve the facilities and amenities to uplift the quality of life of the inhabitance of those areas while generating employment opportunities. UDA being the self-funding agency has to promote the urban investment and generate the revenue through land alienation in order to improve the urban facilities and amenities.
As explained above, UDA has followed the required land alienation guidelines and procedures in dealings with the local as well as foreign investors. The writer should have had the courtesy to consult the UDA before publishing such misleading information in a prominent article in the paper.”
BT reporter says: It is interesting that the UDA concedes that it entertains unsolicited proposals which the public was unaware of earlier. With reference to consulting the UDA for a comment before the story was published, we in fact called Mr. Perera’s office several times and was told by his secretary that he was at meetings and cannot be contacted.