Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2017-05-30

Recovery of lease arrears from the occupants of the railway reservations of the Department of Railways

- Even though nearly 1934 acres of lands out of the lands belonging to the Department of Railways have been given over to 6400 occupants on lease basis, most of the lessees have not paid their due lease rent on a regular basis to the department. As a result, a sum of Rs.1,468 million is due as arrears. At the Cabinet meeting held on 10th of May 2016, approval was granted to lease out the lands occupied for more than 10 years to the relevant occupants for a maximum period of 5 years based on the Government Valuation. Accordingly, the proposal made by Hon. Nimal Siripala de Silva, the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation, to introduce a formal and concessionary method to levy the arrears of lease from the occupants of the relevant lands, was approved by the Cabinet.