Sports Minister Dayasiri Jayasekera who says that horse racing “can attract tourists” and “bring about clear investment benefits to state coffers – wants to give the Nuwara Eliya Race Course a new ‘lease’ of life. He wants to charge only Rs 200,000 for the first year and negotiate a fee for the rest of the ten year lease he has proposed.
This race course now belongs to the Ministry of Sports. Its maintenance and management is vested in the Sugathadasa Sports Complex Authority. The Royal Turf Club, which entered into a lease, has been operating the race course since 2015 and on an extended agreement that is to expire on December 31.
Minister Jayasekera, who is seeking approval to call for applications from new lessees notes that in 2016, there were 103 horses and 29 horse owners. The staff at the race course was 89 persons.”
The funeral of arguably the Queen of the Sinhala cinema Malini Fonseka, will be held with state honours on Monday, May 26, 2025, at the Independence Square.
First Bishop of the Batticaloa Diocese, Retired Bishop Joseph Ponnaiya, passed away today at the age of 74, following a brief illness.
The NPP government has been at the wheel for almost 6 months now. The time to keep looking at the rear view mirror and living in the past is about over.
Leave Comments