Srilanka

If rocks are mined during the next two years at the rate mentioned in the Supplementary Environmental Impact Assessment Report on the Colombo Port City project, supplies for local and national requirement will be severely affected, academics highlighted.

Mar 14, Colombo: The Sri Lankan government on Monday officially informed the Chinese investors of resuming the construction of the multibillion dollar Colombo Port City project, one year after its suspension, China's official Xinhua news agency reported.

The Ministry of Ports and Shipping, in an official letter to the CHEC Port City Colombo (Pvt) Ltd, said that the company could resume the construction of the project immediately.

"At its meeting held on March 9, 2016, the Cabinet of Ministers has granted approval for the project to resume immediately," the letter said.

Decks are being cleared for the early re-launch of the controversial $1.4-billion Colombo Port City Project, with the Sri Lankan and Chinese governments inching closer to a resolution of outstanding issues.

The proposed visit of Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to China during April 6-8 is expected to throw greater clarity on the project.

The Port City Project, which was suspended by the new government of President Maithripala Sirisena in March last year, six months after it began construction, has now been given the green light to proceed and will be done in phases, instead of in one go as a mega project. According to the Minister of Megapolis and Western Development, Patali Champika Ranawaka, there were legal issues that hampered the progress of the Port City Project, but these issues have now been addressed to a large extent.

Mar 10, Colombo: The Sri Lankan government has received the go-ahead to resume the China-funded Colombo Port City Project and accordingly the project agreement with China will be extended for another six months from mid-March.

The current Sri Lankan government on 6th of March 2015 temporarily suspended the US$ 1.4 billion Colombo Port City project, launched by the previous government in partnership with China in September 2014, due to the environmental issues and called for a comprehensive environmental impact assessment.

Sri Lanka Thursday gave go-ahead to a China-backed project to build a port city in Colombo a year after it had been suspended due to environmental concerns. The $1.4 billion project, the biggest ever single foreign investment received by the South Asian nation, falls on China's ambitious 21st Maritime Silk Route.

Mini hydro plants, touted as clean energy power sources, are destroying eco-systems in some areas, experts warned.

In Sri Lanka, large hydro power potential has all been fully utilised and what remains are opportunities for small or mini hydro power. These smaller plants are blocking streams, threatening freshwater fish and the fragile ecosystem in these water sources, a conference heard last week.

The development of the suspended Colombo City Port project in Sri Lanka will now go ahead, according to the Sri Lankan ambassador to China.

The US$ 1.4 billion development, comprising a 230-hectare complex, with hotels, apartments and office buildings, will be built on landfill near the harbour seafront in Colombo, the country’s largest city.

The delayed Colombo Port City project, a plan to create a South Asian financial hub, has been given the green light, the Sri Lankan ambassador to China confirmed, according to the China Daily.

The $1.4 billion urban complex project will cover 233 hectares adjoining the Port of Colombo. The deal was signed between the Sri Lankan government and the China Communications Construction Co in November 2013.

“We feel Colombo is ideal for a South Asian financial hub,” Ambassador Karunasena Kodituwakku said in an interview with China Daily.

Sri Lanka has paved the way for the continuation of the controversial Chinese-owned ocean-front luxury real estate project called Colombo Port City being built on a reclaimed offshore island the size of a small state.

In the same week that Colombo’s state media cited a Chinese official as saying that Sri Lanka has informed China the project will proceed, Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake has told Hong Kong’s longest established English daily, the South China Morning Post, that necessary clearances have been granted. He did not specify what was granted.