Megapolis plan heads to parliament

By Hiruni Dabarera

To withstand Government changes, the Megapolis plan will be presented to parliament in the next few months to be established as a national policy, a top official said yesterday.   

Delivering the keynote address at the second technical session of the CMA Conference 2016, Megapolis and Western Province Development Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka revealed how the Western Region Megapolis plan will be presented to the Parliament as a proposal in the near future to be made a national policy as it is targeted to be completed by 2030.

“There is no political tagline behind the Western region Megapolis project. We believe that planned urbanisation is a must for the development of our economy as we are already reaping the consequences of messy urbanisation: the congestion problems in the transport sector and increased demand for land in the Western province,” the Minister shared, “Having a plan for urbanisation is above all political changes. We are hoping to make this a national policy so that even if there is a change in political power this proposal will not be abandoned,” he asserted.

According to the Minister at present there are only 5,000 acres of land in the Colombo district that can be developed. Hence, only 50,000 families will be able to settle in Colombo in future. However, within the next fifteen years the Ministry expects one million families to be willing to settle in Colombo. Therefore, the Minister reckons that a proper urbanisation plan is of utmost importance to facilitate the country’s development process. 

Currently, the plan is in the middle-income territory which is of $ 4,000 per capita income and is targeting a per capita income of $ 12,000 by 2020. The Minister expects this project to be a launching pad for Sri Lanka to overcome the middle-income trap it has been facing over a decade. In parallel to the megapolis development the Ministry is also aiming to develop economic corridors within Sri Lanka. For this task the cities of Kandy, Galle, Trincomalee, Anuradhapura and Jaffna have been identified as strategic cities. This development strategy is anticipated to penetrate other markets in the Indian Ocean.

The day to day transport problem, traffic congestion, has become not only a social problem but also an economic problem according to the Minister. There are also waste management issues, flooding and other natural disaster issues along with the under-served families living in Colombo (close to 68,000 families are living in slums and shanties). The ministry is hoping to upgrade their livelihoods and provide decent housing and new city programs for the growing middle-class. These are the priority projects of the ministry at present.

The Government has decided that the country’s strategy towards economic development will be innovation driven. Hence, they are hoping to launch tech-cities alongside the outer peripheral road from Homagama to Malabe to facilitate this. There will be new technology research centres for nano, bio, green, space, civil nuclear technologies plus ICT, management, accountancy and other related KPO and PPO businesses in this area. By 2020 the Megapolis and Western region Development Ministry is hoping to achieve at least 30% of what they have formulated.