Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2019-01-02

Implementation of the Urban Regeneration Project in Colombo

- With a view to transforming the Colombo city into a city with a clean and pleasing environment, it has been planned to carry out the Colombo Urban Regeneration Project at an investment of United States Dollars 287 million for the resettlement of people living in slums, in new housing schemes and for more optimal utilization of urban lands. Through this programme, around 50,000 low-income and lower-middle-income residents living in underserved settlements will be benefited with houses of proper standards.
Accordingly, this project is to be implemented under 03 major components of housing construction, land re-development and technical support and project management and it has been planned to obtain funds for this purpose from the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), the Government of Sri Lanka and the private sector. As such, the proposal made by Hon. Mangala Samaraweera, the Minister of Finance & Mass Media, to conduct loan negotiations and to enter into a loan agreement for obtaining the funds to be secured as agreed by the AIIB, was approved by the Cabinet.