Sri Lanka calls investments for capital city urban development

Mar 18, 2010 (LBO) - Sri Lanka is inviting investments for a high-rise complex proposed for prime land in the congested city that will be cleared of slums as part of an urban renewal project, officials said. The 'Panchikawatte Triangle' re-development project will provide 26 acres of land in the heart of the city for a range of businesses, said Surath Wickramasinghe, an architect working for the project under the Urban Development Authority.

"You can’t get that kind of land in Colombo," Wickramasinghe told a seminar organised by the Sri Lanka Shippers' Council to brief investors on investment opportunities in the city's re-development.

The government has planned several urban development projects to ease congestion and improve living standards after the island's 30-year ethnic war that had retarded economic growth ended last year.

"The Panchikawatte Triangle project is only two kilometers away from the city centre - that's how strategically located the site is," Wickramasinghe said.

"The site's potential enormous as it has three major roads around it,"

A master plan for the redevelopment has already been prepared.

The project is a "mixed development" complex of high-rises wi