Port City to re-start after environmental clearance
by Ranil Wijayapala
The Coast Conservation Department(CCD) will appoint a Technical
Committee to approve the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) Report for
the Colombo Port City project in ten days, when it receives a
clarification on public comments from the Ministry of Megapolis and
Western Region Development, an official of the Department told the
Sunday Observer.
Director, Coast Conservation and Coastal Resources Management Gamini
Hewage said nearly 120 public comments were received and forwarded to
the Ministry.
The Urban Development Authority is handling the project. He said most
of the public comments were of a similar nature and there were around 15
issues.
“People have raised concern about the impact on fisheries and sand
mining for the project”, Hewage said.
The CCD will appoint a Technical Committee to approve the EIA report
when the Ministry and UDA clarify the issues raised by the people.
“Depending on the clarifications given by the Ministry it will give
clearance for the project”, Hewage said.
Secretary, of the Ministry Nihal Rupasinghe was perusing around 100
public comments on issues raised by the public.
“We will complete the process in ten days and submit them back to the
CCD for approval,” he said.
They were in touch with the Chinese investor in this regard and
negotiations were now under way to restart the Port City project.
The $1.4 billion port city project, a direct investment by China
Communication and Construction Company was suspended in January last
year pending a government decision whether to go ahead with the project
or not. The present Government gave its approval on condition that it
gets proper environmental clearance and were renegotiating the
conditions in the agreement signed between the Government and the
Chinese investor.
The Government indicated last week that the project will re-start
next month. |