Wed, 08 September 2010  15:41:20
Marine Land 2 Comment(s)
15 Mar, 2007 12:26:32
By Asantha Sirimanne
Sri Lanka accepts John Keells Holdings mega sea reclamation plan
March 15 (LBO) - Sri Lanka has accepted a proposal to reclaim the sea and develop 450 acres of land alongside the Colombo Port by John Keells Holdings (JKH), a senior minister said.
"In the committee headed by the president we approved a very important and a flagship project to add 450 acres to the land space in Colombo," Investment Promotion Minister Sarath Amunugama told reporters Thursday. "We should be signing the agreement next week."

He says the first phase alone is likely to cost about 500 million dollars and will be built over several years as happened in countries like Singapore and India.

JKH with P&O ports already operates a container terminal at the Colombo port.

A port expansion plan known as the Colombo South Port project is already underway. The proposed reclamation project extends around the new South Port.

Amunugama says he wants to boost Sri Lanka's annual foreign direct investment (FDI) flows close to four billion US dollars from last year's 500 million US dollars.

A special 'Mega Projects' promotion unit has been set up at the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka to fast track the largest projects.

Amunugama says several large projects are in the pipeline, including an 800 million US dollar mass rapid transit system for Colombo and several ventures connected to the Hambantota industrial port at the southern tip of the island.

This includes a refinery by Star Petroleum of Dubai costing around a billion dollars. Amunugama says a Dubai firm has also asked to setup a sugar refinery at Hambantota.

The 450 million dollar Hambantota industrial port is to be built by two Chinese construction firms, China Harbor Engineering Company Limited and Syno Hydro Corporation with Chinese government funding.

Updated/adds quotes

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READER COMMENT(S)
2. Mar 15
So if water front land could be purchased at as low as Rs.650,000 a perch in Colombo, it makes one wonder as to whether the high prices of land say around Rs.4M to Rs.7M per perch, on where all these condominiums are being built are actually worth so much? So does this mean that the values of these properties also should reduce?
1. Mar 15
Looks like the Colombo Land Prices are falling! Rs.695,000 per perch seems to be very low compared to the going rate in Colombo.

How come there wasn't a tender to bid on this land? Or will there be opportunities in the future as well to reclaim land at these prices by other parties?

The global economic slow down couldn't have effected the land prices in Colombo this soon for sure!