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Monday, 23 February 2015 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
AFP: From a multi-million dollar airport ignored by airlines to a lavish cricket stadium rejected by players, Sri Lanka’s new Government is mulling the future of a string of white elephants.
Former president Mahinda Rajapaksa ordered the state-of-the-art facilities built in his southern home town of Hambantota in extensive efforts to turn his rural constituency into a regional business hub.
Vast revenues were channelled into the vanity projects, mostly named after the former strongman who ruled the tropical island for a decade and was determined to keep the loss-making ventures open.
But Rajapaksa’s defeat at elections last month, partly due to corruption and cronyism charges, has saddled the new Government with loans of close to a billion dollars and, as yet, no clear strategy to repay them.
“From an economist’s point of view, we have to write off the investments,” said Deputy Minister of Highways and Investment Promotion Eran Wickramaratne.
“We will have to repay the loans for a long time, but we can’t expect any tangible return from them,” he told AFP.
Opened in 2013 after loans of $ 210 million, the Rajapaksa International Airport services just one airline, budget carrier flydubai.
The arrivals hall is eerily empty and the new Government has ordered the terminal’s air conditioning units and decorative water fountains switched off after the carrier’s handful of daily passengers trickle through.
National carrier SriLankan Airlines, under orders by Rajapaksa to land there, halted flights immediately after he was defeated at the 8 January polls by new President Maithripala Sirisena. The airline estimates savings of $ 18 million annually from the stoppage.
Built on a migratory route for birds, the airport has been disastrous for plane-bird collisions. And more recently it has become a highlight on a ‘white elephant tour’ run by local tourist guides.
“The challenge for me is to energise this place,” airport chief executive Derick Karunaratne told AFP. “Just because there is an airport, airlines don’t fly in. They want a destination and we are yet to build it,” he said.
Located some 250 kilometres (180 miles) southeast of the capital Colombo, the town of Hambantota is an arid outpost, surrounded by farm land. But Rajapaksa spent lavishly on the projects anyway, ignoring feasibility studies against the move and environmental warnings about building in an area home to elephants, leopards and bears.
The $ 361-million Chinese-funded harbour in Hambantota is deep in debt, but it does at least see some business from neighbouring India, whose ships full of new cars dock there en route around the world. Officials say the port, which was meant to rival long established ones in Colombo, could break even in more than a decade. In a bid to lure business away from Colombo, Rajapaksa’s Government built a sparkling six-lane highway within Hambantota district and a $ 52 million flyover and interchange that sees little traffic. A railway line extension and another expressway linking the area to the capital are also under construction, costing millions more.
Overlooking the port is another extravagance – a $ 15.5 million conference centre. After hosting a side event during the 2013 Commonwealth summit, its hall has stood empty, except for the occasional wedding reception.
