CHEC motors ahead on Port City after Easter attacks

• Says marine structure engineering expected to be completed within 3 months
• City development to be completed in two stages, first phase to be finished by end 2020

By Charumini de Silva

Despite the setbacks suffered by Sri Lanka after the Easter Sunday attacks, China Harbour Engineering Company Ltd. (CHEC) was positive about prospects for Colombo Port City, outlining plans to finish reclamation completely within the next three months.

“In January this year we finished the whole sand filing process. The marine structure engineering is expected to be completed within the next two to three months. This means that the entire land reclamation process of the project is complete,” said CHEC Chief Sales and Marketing Officer Liang Thow Ming delivering the guest speech at TMC Members meet in Colombo.  The mega $ 15 billion Colombo Port City project is co-developed by the Government and China’s CHEC Port City Colombo Ltd. under the Belt and Road Initiative.

He said the next stage of the project was to build the city infrastructure, which would be done in two stages. The first phase of development includes the eastern half of the project, where work has commenced in July last year and is scheduled to be completed by next year. Thereafter, the second phase development will probably be done on demand basis. 

In total, 269 hectares of land from the ocean had been reclaimed for the Port City which will include 90 hectares for infrastructure land, 179 hectares of clean title land for city development and 74 land plots for development.

Ming said the completion of the project in 25 years would push Sri Lanka’s economic outlook in an entirely new direction.

“Based on advanced concept, rigorous and scientific construction technology and corporate culture focusing on team building, this project will make a huge contribution to Sri Lanka’s social and economic development and improvement of people’s living standards,” he added.

Colombo Port City is an important project of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in Sri Lanka and will benefit Sri Lankan people and society.

The Port City will have five precincts, with expected city population of 250,000, while creating 83,000 new job opportunities.

Ming said the vision of the Colombo Port City was to build a world class city for South Asia. “We want to build the regional business pie in Sri Lanka so that the overall economy of the country will grow phenomenally,” he stressed.  

According to him, South Asia has close to 300,000 High Net-worth Individuals (HNIs) and over 7,350 Ultra High Net-worth Individuals (UHNIs) in the region, which is expected to double by 2026.

The financial district will be high density ‘A grade’ office buildings with a commercial boulevard, linear park, CBD plaza and retail destination. “For the financial district we will be attracting financial institutions from the region,” he said.

In terms of the international island, Ming said it would include a convention centre, healthcare centre, international schools and international resorts.