Bill concerning Colombo port city to be amended

COLOMBO (News1st): A committee appointed to review Sri Lanka's 1.5 billion dollar Colombo Port City project has recommended the amendment of a bill relating to it. "After the bill is amended, investors can engage in their activities without any impediments," M.M.C. Ferdinando, the chairman of the Port City Review Committee said. The recommendation had been made in the final review report that was handed over to Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa on Wednesday. Meanwhile, the committee also found that Sri Lanka had given additional land from the port city land to compensate an investor, who pumped in one billion US dollars, after the project was delayed under the previous government. "Due to the delays this investor company had asked for USD 143 million in compensation. As compensation, we had to give them an additional 5.1 hectares of land," Fernando noted. Sand filling for the construction of the port city had taken place across 233 hectares of land among which the government had received 62 hectares, the investor 108 hectares, while the remainder was for common use. However, the review committee chairman pointed out that the total extent of landfilling had increased to 269 hectares after the investor had been compensated. The review committee comprised president's counsel Nihal Jayawardena, Prof. Priyange Dunusinghe, Transportation Economist D.S Jayaweera, and Architect Nalaka Jayaweera.