Kalpitiya leisure city on track

Harshini PERERA

Thirty projects are expected to create a leisure city in Kalpitiya for tourists.

Eight projects in an extent of 5,000 acres in Kalpitiya have already started the mobilising process.

All the projects will be environment friendly and they will be green hotels dedicated to cater to leisure activities, Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority, Additional Project Director, Tissa Sooriyagoda told Daily News Business.

The Authority has been able to get the lands owned by the Government that were not inhabited by fishermen in the hope of creating 5,000 rooms.

This number of rooms will supplement the 35,000 total rooms in the country by 2015.

It is expected to complete 2,000 rooms by the end of 2012 while many investors have inquired about investment.

The lands will be leased out after a tender process and of the eight projects, two are in the islands near Kalpitiya.

"Two leased plots will be mobilised and ground work will take place after the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA).

The construction in Kalpitiya is being expedited as every organisation has contributed to the development of tourism in Sri Lanka," Sooriyagoda said. More than one million tourists are expected in the Kalpitiya areas after the development of the entire resort.

All these products include special features to tourists arriving from various countries and the resort will be featured with beaches, diving, fishing and sun-bathing facilities offered by regular resorts.

He said the second phase of the project will start within a week as the Authority expects to open the tender process.

An additional 3,000 rooms will be added from the Pasikudah area in Batticoloa and Kuchchaveli in Trincomalee district in the future.