Italian Baglioni to be operators; US$ 1200 a room night:

US$ 300 m resort complex at Kalpitiya

Ravi LADDUWAHETTY

Upbeat about peace and investment prospects in the North West coast, a Sri Lankan hotelier- turned property developer living in Bahrain has embarked on an ambitious US$ 300 million leisure project at Kalpitiya geared for the world class resort users and signature home owners.

The promoter of the project is Neil D'Silva whose companies- the locally registered Dutch Bay Pvt Ltd and the Bahrain based Norwich International Consultants will jointly invest 60% of the funds while the remainder will come from a Bahrain consortium of investors.

The project will house a total of 116 luxury homes and a further total of 80 hotel chalets.

"Sri Lanka is a sleeping giant and this is a part of an effort to regain some of the lost opportunities due to two decades of conflict.

"We will be pricing the luxury villas at US$ 1200 per room night and the mangrove chalets will fetch a minimum of US$ 500 a room night," D'Silva told Daily News Business yesterday. One of the marketing strategies of the project will also be to get Italian based international hotel operator Baglioni to manage the project and the golf course will be signed off by one of the top seven golf players in the world when the project is opened end 2011.

The Dutch Bay Resorts (DBR) project concept is to deliver a world class mixed-use resort facility that will provide exclusive facilities for international tourists and signature home owners.

The history of Dutch Bay can be traced back to the 16 Century colonial times when the footsteps of the Dutch named this paradise -The Dutch Bay of the Indian Continent. He said the Dutch Bay Project will become a benchmark for other sustainable and echo friendly developments here and that farming and fisher communities in the area will be integrated into the project with value additions to their lives as well.

"Our long-term objectives and action parameters are sustainability, environmental quality, educate travellers to the area in reference to tradition, culture, thus keeping the indigenous culture a live, amplification of the tourist season to diminish the seasonality, and to create income opportunities to benefit the local communities," he said.