Wednesday Dec 25, 2024
Wednesday Dec 25, 2024
Friday, 8 July 2011 03:22 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Being in line with the Eastern Development project carried out to add infrastructure facilities to the tourism capital, an agreement was signed between Veolia and Puritas Ltd. and Tourism Authorities to install a new sewage plant in the Pasikudah Tourism Development Zone during last week.
The Pasikudah Tourism Development Zone consists of 156 acres of land in total and out of that, 118 Perches of land has been given to the installment of the new sewage plant. The agreement was reached as a result of the new approach proposed by the Ministry of Economic Development to involve investors and service providers in the infrastructure requirements which should also be considered as investments.
Thus , Veolia and Puritas Ltd. and Hotel owners will work together to recover the total investment of US$ 196 mn in 20 years on terms of mutual consent, allowing the Government to redirect her investments to other essential development areas that the Private Sector cannot curruntly get engaged in.
On the direction of the Ministry of Economic Development, the infrastructure requirements in Tourism Resorts are now reckoned as investments opportunities paying way for potential investors and service providers to work on a common platform." says the Sri Lanka Tourism official. Tourism Authorities will continue to play the role of facilitator between the parties as in the case of Veolia and Puritas Agreement.
The new sewage plant will comply with the guidelines of EIA – (Environmental Impact Assessment) and the purified water will be supplied to the hotels for gardening purposes. Currently there are 13 investors in Pasikudah who have signed agreements and are investing nearly 6.5 billion to develop holiday resorts in the once war-torn East coast of Sri Lanka.
One Boutique hotel has already commenced operation with the completion of public facilities in common areas.
The Water Supply scheme from Valachchchenai, costing Rs. 87 million is also nearing completion together with Sri Lanka Tourism Resort office to service the area. The public area in Pasikudah will consist of car park, open air theatre, two shopping arcades and two restaurants. The access road is built by the Sri Lanka Army
Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa is closely supervising the development of Pasikudah with the assistance of Deputy Minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardhana to ensure that the expected 1000 rooms will be added on to the overall tourism inventory without delay. The development activities in the zone will provide a considerable amount of direct and indirect employment.
