Lanka to go ahead with H’tota development

Shirajiv SIRIMANE

Sri Lanka will go ahead building the proposed Commonwealth Games 4,000 roomed Sports Village in Hambantota, Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal said.

The new athletic stadium too will be built.

Answering a question from Daily News Business he said the promised infrastructure for the Commonwealth Games bid will go ahead as they were not planned for the games only.

Sports Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamge with Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal. Picture by Sumanachandra Ariyawansa.

“With the rapid development taking place in Hambantota which includes an international harbour, airport, BPO centers, campus and convention centre it is estimated that over 5,000 rooms will be needed in the future.

“We are catering to this demand as our investment is long term,” he said.

Addressing a post Commonwealth Games bid media event he said Hambantota was selected as it had an international airport and harbour and the area could also release over 1,000 acres of land for a sports venue.

“It’s a nightmare to think of hosting games of this magnitude in Colombo as it will take billions to obtain land,” he said.

Commenting on the bid to host the 2018 Games he said though they lost the bid to Gold Coast (43 to 27) their presentation was highly commendable and at one stage Gold Coast had second thoughts of their victory.

He said the investment for the entire bid process was US $ eight million out of which the government invested US $ 100 million.

In contrast Gold Coast spent US $ 11 million for their bid process.

If Sri Lanka were to host the games a further US one billion would have been required for games specific infrastructure.

Sports Minister said that if this money was given to the Tourism Ministry they could not have marketed Sri Lanka to this extent.

He said that over 4,000 businesses have already benefited from the Glasgow 2014 Games and a similar scenario awaited Hambantota.