Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2012-10-03

Vesting / Acquisition of Lands for resettlement of families living in Under-served Settlements in the City of Colombo

- the Urban Development Authority has planned to construct 65,000 Housing Units for resettlement of shanty dwellers living in under-served settlements in the City of Colombo. It is expected to construct high rise apartments with all common amenities to resettle the families and to free those sites for commercial and mixed development projects, in keeping with the City of Colombo Development Plan. The Urban Development Authority has already awarded contracts to build 9,781 Housing Units under 11 projects within the City of Colombo, where the work is in progress and is intended to complete construction within the next 2 years. The proposal made by H.E. the President, in his capacity as the Minister of Defence and Urban Development to vest the identified blocks of state land to be utilized for the purpose, as Free Grants with the Urban Development Authority, was approved by the Cabinet.