Megapolis and Western Development Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka says that Port City is only a leasing out project and that the real estate business pertaining to the project will solely be carried out by his ministry.

“The government owns 32 hectares plus 90 hectares of public place. On the other hand all the other lands belong to the Sri Lankan Government and Sri Lankan President. So it is only a leasing out process.”

“When the Chinese Company is going to drench sand there in the SLRDC and other government places they will be paying us. According to the calculations based on river sand basis a sum of around Rs. 300,000 per perch will be vested on reclamation work and can be sold to 20 million. That is the profit owned by Sri Lankan government,” he said.

“At the meantime Prime Minister’s office is working on legal basis and other modalities which are called the soft part of this project. But the entire real estate business will be done by our Ministry”

Speaking at a press conference in Colombo following an inspection tour of the project, he also confirmed that the government has not yet signed any kind of MoU although there are proposals to do so.

He said that after the completion of reclamation work the President has to declare this area as a part of Sri Lanka and thereafter the president will ask them to declare the area as a special urban development area.

Afterwards the Chinese parties and the Sri Lankan government would be able to call for a request for tenders (RFT) or Expression of Interest (EOI), Champika said. No government agency other than the President and the UDA are entitled to enter into an MOU, he pointed out.

Speaking further, the Minister said the aim of Port City project is to make Sri Lanka, Western Province and Colombo an iconic Regional Commercial Trade Centre in the Indian Ocean.

“This project faced many oppositions based on environmental, legal and social aspects and they still prevail. However we are resolving these questions one by one and keep carrying on the process.”

“This project is of great importance to us. It did not have a clear aim before. It was previously said that this city would be used for Motor racing rallies and Casino. But we have one clear aim of converting one part of this, a financial city.” added the Minister.