• UDA feasibility study underway to relocate all govt. institutions to Battaramulla and vicinity, to free up Colombo as commercial capital  

A feasibility study is being carried out by the Urban Development Authority (UDA) at present to look into the possibility of having all government institutions located in and within the vicinity of Battaramulla with the aim of making Sri Jayewardenepura, Kotte, the administrative hub of Sri Lanka.

The Director General of the UDA, N.P.K. Ranaweera said yesterday (28) that a feasibility study is being carried out to look into the possibility of locating all the Government institutions to Battaramulla, with the aim of making Sri Jayewardenepura, Kotte, the administrative hub of Sri Lanka. He said this when he was contacted by The Daily Morning regarding the relocation of the President's House in Sri Jayewardenepura, Kotte.

“This is still at the planning level. We have to ask the officials in the UDA to prepare a report to look into the possibility of doing this. Not only the President’s House, but also the Prime Minister’s official residence (the Temple Trees), the Ministries, and other Government offices are to be relocated. Especially the proposals related to developing Battaramulla as an administrative hub were contained in the Colombo Master Plan, but this had stopped with the change of governments from time to time,” he said.

He also said that this will make Colombo a more efficient commercial capital and make it easier for the people who come to public institutions daily.

“We are mainly focusing on relocating the President’s House at the “Sandun Uyana” which was made by the previous Government near the Parliamentary complex. However, we can reach a final decision on how to implement this plan only after receiving the report of the feasibility study. Until then, the UDA does not expect to make a decision on this,” he noted.

The project was initiated during the Government of former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga in order to relocate the President’s House to Sri Jayewardenepura, Kotte, in 1996 following late President J.R. Jayewardene’s plan to make Sri Jayewardenepura, Kotte, the administrative capital where all the Government institutions would be located in the same vicinity.