Singaporean firm steps in again to rejuvenate Colombo city development plan
A Singapore urban development consulting company, Cesma International re-branded as Surbana, is now engaged in Colombo city master-planning and redevelopment work to build a ‘megapolis’ in Sri Lanka’s Western Province, Urban Development Authority Chairman Ranjth Fernando told the Business Times.
A team from Surbana will be working out a sustainable re-development plan for the city as the government has terminated the ad hoc beautification programme of the previous regime, he disclosed.
This new venture is aimed at updating and upgrading the zonal development concept plan devised by the same company 13 years ago during the United National Party’s 2001-2004 government, he said, adding that it will address all the present needs in the city to suit the modern international urban development trends.
A Western Region Megapolis extending from Negombo to Beruwala with the city of Colombo as the centre with all modern facilities and infrastructure development has been proposed.
The new plan will be formulated considering all aspects of environmental conservation, flood protection and resettlement of the displaced without causing any injustice or inconvenience for citizens, he asserted.
According to the Cesma proposal of 2001, a large metropolitan zone was to be created expanding outwards from Colombo to Avissawella to the north and Pandadura to the south.
It has proposed an inner perimeter from Moratuwa to Ja-Ela and an outer perimeter from Negombo to Homagama and Kalutara.
The Colombo city centre was to be developed as a high-density area with major facilities under the previous plan.
The inner perimeter was to consist of self-reliant townships and was to be a medium-density area.
The outer perimeter was to be developed as low-density townships.
According to the proposal, Fort, Pettah, Kollupitiya and Maradana with a total land area of over 1,033 hectares were envisaged as the New Downtown containing the Business and the Financial District. Slave Island and Galle Road were to be the shopping areas.
The latest plan will include all these basic aspects with major modifications, UDA sources revealed.
The leasing of state owned lands in the city of Colombo for mixed development and other housing projects has been suspended till the development guide plans are finalised, a senior UDA official said adding that the real intention of the previous regime was not the development of Colombo but to dispose of state land to pre-selected buyers without following proper tender procedures.
Singapore has stepped in to support Sri Lanka to implement the plan to build a ‘megapolis’ in Sri Lanka’s Western Province following the recent visit of Singapore’s Foreign Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam to the island a couple of months ago.