Yahapālanaya Set To Go Ahead With Thrice Cancelled US $ 88 Million Nuwara Eliya Chinese Sport Project
June 24, 2015
The thrice cancelled US $ 88 million Chinese funded turn key project which was set to be built in Nuwara Eliya under the former Rajapaksa regime, is likely to be approved by the present Yahapālanaya led government soon, fear environmentalist activists.
Minister Navin Dissanayake
A High Altitude Training Centre for athletics and other sports which was scheduled to be constructed initially in 2009, within the confines of the Race Course, is making headway a fourth time around despite reported environmental threats, as seen when it was first first scrapped in 2009.
When Colombo Telegraph contacted well known environmentalist and lawyer Jagath Gunawardena for his thoughts on this project he said ‘”there is a portion of the said property in Nuwara Eliya, where we have already sent in our recommendations to the Mayor Mahinda Dodampegamage in early February 2015, for it to be made a ‘Conservative Zone’ and have it gazetted in parliament.
This is the fourth time that this Chinese project has been sent to the Ministry of Sports as an ‘unsolicited proposal’, which means that open bids are not called for such ventures. On the three previous occasions, the Cabinet Review Sub Committee (CRSC) of the Treasury rejected both proposals.
Documented evidence from 2009 reveal that the then Minister of Sports Gamini Lokuge spent approximately Rs 200 million to develop the infrastructure of the project. This project was eventually made redundant by the Urban Development Authority, due to it being proven that the project if continued would be an environmental threat due to flooding issues.
In the second instance in August of 2013, the former Minister of Sports Mahindananda Aluthgamage was quoted in the Sunday Times on the 4th August 2013 to have said that “China Volant Industry Company Limited has offered to bear costs up to US$ 85 million (more than Rs. 11 billion) and financing would have to be found for the remaining US$ 27.65 million (more than Rs. 3.5 billion). He did say then that the Department of External Resources should be called upon to look for the extra funds needed”.
However this project resurfaced a third time in 2014, when Anura Jayawickrema was the then Secretary to the Ministry. However the CSRC yet again was firm in not approving of it.
