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| Sunday, 8 September 2002 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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Glittering Colombo City by night by E. Weerapperuma, Anton Nonis and Don Asoka wijewardena Freed of the shackles of war, Colombo is lighting up,staying awake and living it up. Heightened prospects for peace and a growing world focus on international events here have spurned Colombo's Municipal authorities to introduce more sparkle into a metropolitic long affected by war and economic doldrums. Mayor Prasanna Gunawardena while contesting the Colombo Municipal Council as Mayoral candidate early this year promised to turn the City of Colombo a pleasant place to live for the residents and for the others coming from far and wide an exuberent place to stay. Mayor Gunawardena determined to make the city, an economic hub of South East Asia and a hive of activity in the region, came out with a proposal to make it a "city that never goes to sleep", in this part of the region by keeping the city lights on throughout the night. At a discussion he had has with the business leaders in Colombo to make it "a Prasanna Nagaraya", he gave the leadership by lighting the Town Hall building. It was his view that the business community should step into do business at night like during the day and thus help boosting national economy. Mayor Gunawardene told the 'Sunday Observer' that the country's economy could be developed by doing business at night."We as the Municipality have given the lead by lighting the CMC building and the private sector is welcomed to do so at their own expense". Moving along the city roads one could see that as a result of the initiative taken by the Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) - its buildings, roads and by-roads throughout the nights are brilliantly lit up in an effort to make Colombo one of best cities in Asia. The power requirement is supplied from the national grid. "With the Colombo City sprining into a new life in the night we could see people getting into action.If you just happened to walk in Colombo streets you would see that some areas are busy like the day while others are yet to catch up". While the request is to keep the city alive and illuminated at night, the question at issue is who suffered the most when power cut was in force. The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) officials said that they were optimistic that they would provide enough electricity to keep the City illuminated throughout the night as well as and the entire country despite the need for an extra power supply for this purpose. The Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) has invited the private sector to do business to increase national income by keeping the city activated at nights. According to CEB sources, the hydro-electric reservoir water levels are sufficiently high with an average total storage capacity of 44.6 per cent as on last Friday. The stored up water could produce up to 560 million units of electricity. The total installed capacity by hydro means is 1135 mega watts added to this is another 27 mega watts supplied by mini=hydro stations thus totalling 1162 mega watts as the country's installed hydro power. The power output by thermal means is also said to be satisfactory. There is a thermal capacity of 555 mega watts by the CEB against the private sector's 453 mega watts which is composed of 153 mega watts by way of Installed Private Power (IPP) and 300 mega watts as emergency power, the total installed capacity (thermal) is 1008 mega watts in the country. Thus the total installed capacity (hydro and thermal) is over 2100 mega watts whereas the power needed by the country is 1400 mega watts, as calculated by the CEB which shows that there is a surplus of power. The Deputy Mayor Azath Salley said that there was abundance of power now available in the country which could meet their demand without any obstacle. The Ceylon Electricity Board's Additional Genaral Manager, Maxie Tissera, endorsed this view. Fears that the prevalent drought might lead to a power shortage once again resulting power cuts experienced recently,were also allayed. According to Mr. Salley, lighting up the city, the high-rise and the low buildings and the streets was necessitated during a night-out patrol along the Duplication Road,which was virtually in darkness for most part of its stretch. Many buildings, state owned and private, too were ill-lit. Asked whether the CEB would be able to provide power without interruption, CEB's Additional GM, Tissera said, they could do so as long as the demand is not heavy. " The present rate of demand does not create us any problem", he said. When the Sunday Observer" contacted some of the commercial houses doing business in the city of Colombo, they welcomed the CMC move. Mrs Abans Pestongee, Managing Director of ABANS Group said that the illumination of the Colombo city was a long-felt need, that had become a reality. Colombo is a fast-growing city with a multi=racial community and is well known as an international business metropolis. But I have noticed that some potential business areas remained unlit. I am certain that lack of lighting in some places will tarnish the image of the city. It should be well-lit as other capitals in the world. It should have been done much earlier. Mr. Imtiaz Wahid, Deputy Managing Director of Cargills Ltd, opined that the illumination of the Colombo city was a big step forward taken by the authorities. In recent times most city dwellers had taken to late-night shopping and a number of business enterprises kept their shops open to cater to the needs of customers." In my opinion, people prefer to do shopping at night because most people are employed. When the shops are open with other facilities like transport and banking, more and more people will keep on visiting the city at nights". |
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