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by Elmo Leonard

Town and country planners are busy on two schemes, covering mainly dry zone agriculture, intended to take the farmer from producer, to the next stage of industrialist and agro service provider.

The schemes are, the Mahaweli Urban Development Programme (MUDP) and the Greater Dambulla Development Programme (GDDP) included in the 2006 budget and must start forthwith, to end during the current year. The MUDP scheme envisages investments of $2 million and GDDP, $5 million.

If executed effectively, the two schemes which are interlinked, will add much to the socio-economy of the farming community, providing entrepreneurship and employment to the second generation of Mahaweli farmers.

The schemes, will also contribute substantially to the GDP, Willie Mendis, senior professor of town and country planning of the University of Moratuwa said.

These schemes are vital in strengthening the rural economy and countering stagnation as, the now emerging second generation of Mahaweli farmers have no land to cultivate, while Dambulla is the hub for Mahaweli produce trading. Hitherto the Mahaweli economy was agriculture and hydroelectricity dependent. Thus, the setting up of agro-industries and services at small-scale level, is of immediate necessity, Prof Mendis said. The 2006 Budget advocates the remodelling of the Mahaweli economy to increase its contribution from 1 to 3 percent of GDP to the economy. "Money put in, will create wealth," Prof Mendis said.

The Urban Development Authority (UDA) planners are now preparing the blueprint for the GDDP and identifying urban development projects, which would fit in.

The Dambulla plan encircles other satellite dry zone irrigation-bolstered townships such as Dambulla, Habarana, Galewela, Madatugama and Naula, within a radius of 20 miles.

''The UDA also talks to the University of Moratuwa concerning the MUDP - Mahaweli Urban Development Project with the intention of identifying strategies and industries which would provide a fillip to the scheme," Prof Mendis said. Dambulla, in proximity of Sigiriya, and the other dry zone ancient civilisations ruins, and international cricket stadium, is already established as a region of tourism importance. Thus, the Ceylon Tourist Board also has plans to improve the already existing tourism infrastructure, Prof Mendis said.

Also envisaged in the budget is the Colombo Trincomalee Expressway, which will cut through Dambulla, and was proposed in the early 1970s, being long overdue. Such an expressway would cut down travel time from Colombo to Trincomalee to three hours, enabling produce to be shifted from the Mahaweli areas to the east and west of the country and bring goods into the ports, for export.

Consequently, the Trincomalee Colombo Corridor will be the key to development, away from Colombo and Gampaha.

Similarly, the building of the Southern Expressway would link Colombo with the south, heightening southern development and an increase of the south's contribution to the nation's GDP, Prof Mendis said.

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