Govt to elevate Kelani Valley playground to int'l standards

TALDUWA: The 25-acre Kelani Valley playground including the K.V. Club at Talduwa has been taken over by the Government to be developed as a fully equipped international stadium in accordance with an idea mooted by Labour Relations and Foreign Employment Minister Athauda Seneviratne when he was earlier the Chief Minister of Sabaragamuwa Province.

A special ceremony was held at the venue on Tuesday to mark the takeover presided by Urban Development and Water Supply Minister Dinesh Gunawardena. Minister Gunawardena said the playground would be developed as an international stadium on the lines of the Dambulla Stadium to give an impetus to sports and produce sportsmen and women in the calibre of Susanthika Jayasinghe who hailed from Sabaragamuwa.

It will include all facilities such as running tracks, pavilions, rest halls, body building centres, sports training consultancy centres. Minister Athauda Seneviratne said the Kelani Valley playground had served as a warrior training centre for king Rajasinghe during the Sitawaka Kingdom and a Planters' mess during British rule.

Later it served as a centre for car, horse and elephant races and after 1977 had been leased out to the Kelani Valley Plantation Company. However his one ambition had been to develop the venue as an international stadium and it was his dream which prompted the launching of the Talduwa-Katunayake expressway project.