UDA continues to make Peliyagoda a modern market and trade city
The Urban Development Authority (UDA) will be continuing the development work in Peliyagoda to make it a hub for modern markets, trade and industry under the Colombo City Development Master Plan, UDA officials said.
The reallocation of the Manning Market from Colombo to Peliyagoda will soon get underway where a market complex with all facilities in a 25 acre-block of land near the Peliyagoda wholesale fish market will be established, a senior UDA official told Business Times.
“The aim is to make the Peliyagoda area, accessible from Negombo Road, Kandy Road and Baseline Road, to have all these facilities. Along with that, we are planning to take the activities of the wholesale market of sugar, dhal, etc to the same place,” he added.
The State Engineering Corporation (SEC) has been directed to expedite the C-City complex at Peliyagoda, a senior SEC official told the Business Times adding that financial constraints were the reason for the delay in construction work. The UDA estimated the cost of the market complex at Rs. 1.37 billion.
This market complex will meet the requirements of the farmer, consumer and the trader. It will comprise among other facilities 100 two storey wholesale vegetable stalls (each 120 square feet), 662 retail vegetable sales stalls, processing centre for vegetables and fruits for export, employees rest rooms, restaurants, service centre, parking space for 135 lorries and 200 cars.
The mega complex will also contain a car park, modern warehouse facilities and state of the art facilities
Bids were closed to allocate stalls for traders recently and only 16 traders were selected to provide stalls up to now, he revealed.
The C-City will also offer almost all the building materials and construction related services under one roof.
The UDA development work in Pelyagoda to transform it to a modern market and trade city has however been slowed down due to present financial constraints, he said.
Dananjaya Abeyrathne, an accountant working in the area, told the Business Times that Peliyagoda has the potential of becoming a modern developed city due to its conducive location which is going to be a major junction to an outer circular highway.
It can be reached by E1(Katunayake Highway), E2 and the Northern Highway within a couple of hours from major cities (Galle, Matara, Kandy, Ratnapura) and it’s in the middle of the Colombo-Kandy Road (A1) and Colombo Puttalam Road and even a few miles to the low level road (to Hanwella), he revealed.
Further the Kelaniya railway station (main line) can be reached within a few minutes from Peliyagoda and it is easy to reach Colombo Fort, National Hospital, Colombo Municipal Council and city tourist hotels, he said adding that he is suggesting making use of un-utilised land in the area for productive purposes such as establishing industrial parks and industries.
Otherwise these lands will be filled with unauthorised buildings and encroachments, he warned.
A senior UDA official said, action will be taken to prevent such occurrences and they are in the process of building a railway line to transport all containers from the harbour to Peliyagoda via train. The release of the containers will take place in Pelyagoda.
“Therefore we will minimise lorries coming into the city centre by taking the activities to the outskirts. This is being done to facilitate the commercial hub in Colombo,” he added.