Saturday, 13 December 2014 00:00
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Development of basic infrastructure like building of roads is vital to the development of the country. Vast development projects have been carried out since 2009 and taking as examples the strategies followed by the former Prime Ministers of Malaysia Dr. Mahathir Mohamad and Singapore, Lee Kwan Yu in projecting their countries into achieving high development targets Sri Lanka is also going in the right direction, said Weerasena Adikari, Senior Consultant of the Urban Development Authority speaking at the weekly press briefing held at the Media Center this week.
He further said that new roads will bring value addition to underdeveloped areas and also bring in new technologies to the industry.
A large number of development projects have been implemented in the Uva Province under the Small and Medium Town Development Project by the Urban Development Authority. Under the project regional cities in the Uva Province has seen a host of new development projects being carried out in Badulla, Bandarawela, Welimada, Passara, Haputale, Ella and Kataragama.
Elaborating on the regional development projects carried out by the UDA Janak Ranaweera, Deputy Director (Planning) of the UDA said that the new bus terminal at Bandarawela was constructed at a cost of Rs. 152 million enabling all buses to begin journey from a central point rather than from several points which had caused much hardship to the people. This has been a very successful project which has brought desired results. A wholesale market and a cooperative building complex is also on the drawing board. All these projects are carried out to a properly planned scheme he said.
In Badulla the garbage dumb is being cleared and made into a playground with the assistance of the security forces. In addition the Senanayake ground will be developed into a car park. A multi storied Administrative Building is also planned to be built in Badulla to house all government institutions which are at present spread out in different location to one location. A suitable location has been already identified and the project is estimated to cost Rs. 220 million.
Ella, the popular tourist destination will see many of its existing facilities developed and given a new facelift. The garbage dump will be removed to another location and the railway station will be uplifted with more facilities to serve both local and foreign travellers. Haputale, another tourist destination will see a viewing deck with restaurant facilities being built in the city where visitors will have the opportunity to have an unrestricted view of the lower regions of Uva and Sabaragamuwa Provinces.
The existing weekly fair in Welimada will be developed with more facilities. Passara will have a new fair to serve the farmers and small scale businessmen in the area to sell their produce. A playground with a pavilion will be built in Keppetipola. With the Sellakataragama developemnt work already completed, work on the project to construct stalls for small time vendors will begin in Kataragama.
