Oyamaduwa to be a leading industrial township

Nimal Wijesinghe-Anuradhapura Additional District Group Corr

It has been planned to transform the Oyamaduwa village in the Deyata Kirula-2012 National Exhibition site into a leading commercial, industrial and agricultural township in the Anuradhapura district.

Deputy Director General of Physical Planning Development, B A Tilakaratne, said that it was evident that President Mahinda Rajapaksa, had focused his special interest on this matter. The President had advised the authorities to make the necessary adjustments to three massive buildings, covering nearly three acres of landscape, consisting of around 120,000 square feet, to convert them into grain storing complexes, once the exhibition was over.

The capacity of these buildings was around 50,000 metric tons," he said.

Tilakaratne said that it was the vision of the President that the surplus paddy harvest in the North Central, North and East could be accommodated in this giant warehouse complex in addition to maize, chillies, onions.

He said that the President had made inquiries into the ongoing construction of the Oyamaduwa new water pump house and the water treatment machinery which was able to release 2,000 cubic metres of treated drinking water daily.

It was the President's view that the particular water project was an important component in the Oyamaduwa development process and a relief to the villagers in the region who were facing the renal ailment menace.

"Parliamentarian Namal Rajapaksa had visited the Oyamaduwa Exhibition construction site on the 22nd and had participated in the distributing of free tiles to nearly 1,000 families living in thatched houses in the Anuradhapura Central and Eastern Nuwaragam Palatha Divisional Secretariat divisions. He said that he with the consent of the President, would start a garment factory and a fruit processing factory in Oyamaduwa, which will provide jobs to thousands of local youth," Tilakaratne said.