Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2012-10-18

Slave Island Area Redevelopment Project, Colombo 02

- the Urban Development Authority is presently engaged in the implementation of several projects in the city of Colombo to create more opportunities for urban investments and the housing development programme to resettle 65,000 low income families living in under-served settlements in the city of Colombo, is one such project to liberate prime lands for urban development. The occupants in the relevant lands will be provided with decent houses with all facilities within a period of two years in lieu of their individual properties and the relevant families have agreed to renounce their rights to claim compensation for the respective land plots. The total cost for providing alternate housing/commercial units including rental payments for temporary accommodation of the families is estimated to be about SLR 5874 million. The proposal made by H.E. President, in his capacity as the Minister of Defence and Urban Development, to proceed with the project, was approved by the Cabinet.