Sri Lanka’s Urban Development Authority to look at introducing new global concepts
Prof. Ranjith Dissanayake of Sri Lanka’s Urban Development Authority (UDA) has said the Authority will look at introducing several new global building and transport concepts to the country within the next few months.
Prof. Dissanayake has told the state owned English daily, Daily News Business that one of the prime areas the government would focus on is to minimize the number of people coming to the capital to get their work done.
“To meet this objective there would be a high focus on ICT sector where the government would link Ministries with each other online. People requesting government services then could also get ‘online’ and ‘not in line’ and fulfill their duties. More and more government institutions going on line would also help people to access their services from home and it would also lead to less corruption,” the senior UDA official has said.
He has further noted that priority would be given to ‘new cities’ which would be created outside main towns like Kandy, Galle Gampaha and even Jaffna where people would have the same privilege of living in a city.
According to Prof. Dissanayake, modern techniques would be used in road construction where environmental impact would be minimal. “For the first time we will also use plastic waste and similar waste for road construction.”
He has added that transport would be a major priority and the proposed Light Rail system would be given priority. “We will also look at more practical water/canal transport system from Nawala to Wellawatta and also from the Fort Railway station to Colombo 2.”
OSL take:
Sri Lanka’s ongoing development programme has expanded the business/investment opportunities in many key economic sectors. Foreign businesses/investors could also look at opportunities in introducing new technologies and global concepts to Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka’s geographical positioning in the Indian Ocean, the ease of doing business environment in the country and the many trade agreements as well as trade concessions enjoyed by the country have made it an attractive business destination in the South Asian region.
| Article Code : | VBS/AT/24122019/Z_2 |