Dreams with Colombo port city
View(s):The much hyped Colombo Port City, or shall we call it the ‘Dream City’ which will be the Disney World in Colombo, looks fantastic in the model displayed by the China Communication Construction Co Ltd. The contract for this dream world is going to cost US$1.4 billion to the citizens of Sri Lanka, of which only a very rich 10 per cent will enjoy this luxury.
To the common ear $1.4 billion sounds like 1.4 Kos ata (jak seeds). I tried to visualise this amount in figures and tried to enter this amount in my pocket calculator but that couldn’t handle such a large figure. So tried it on my Ipad and this is what I got: $1.4 billion in figures is $1,400,000,000 (One billion, four hundred million dollars)
In Sri Lankan Rupees it is Rs. 186,361,000,000 (One hundred and eighty six billion, three hundred and sixty one million rupees). Add 5 per cent interest as commission on this project which then makes it $70,000,000 (70 million dollars) or Rs.9,100,000,000 (Nine billion, one hundred million rupees)
Isn’t this a nice figure for commissions? Who would collect this and where could one hide this?
D.L. Sirimanne
Kohuwela.