A new capital

In antiquity, it was not unknown for emperors to build new capital cities to reinforce their rule and to break with the past. Herodotus records that ‘Deioces’ (Daiukku), the monarch who united the Medes of what is now Iran, constructed a seven-walled capital at ‘Ecbatana’ (Hangmatana - ‘meeting place’, modern Hamadan). The Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaton erected the city of Akhetaton (modern el Amarna) at some distance from the then capital, Thebes, to enhance his own power and his belief in Aton, and to challenge the dominance of the priests of the polytheistic religion.

The Emperor Constantine’s purpose-built capital city was Constantinopal (modern Istanbul), built to signify the greater importance of the Eastern portion of the Roman Empire as well as to break with the ancient Roman religion. It was to remain capital of the Byzantine Empire and thereafter of the Ottomans.

Islamic world

The Caliphs ruled from purpose-built Baghdad, which was the centre of the Islamic world. The Mongol emperor Kublai Khan built a new capital called Khanbaliq (Beijing) in China, the greatest of his conquests.

In the modern era, several countries have built new capital cities at some distance from the existing political centres. Abuja, Brasilia, Canberra, Islamabad and Washington were built as federal capitals to proclaim their separateness from other, existing urban centres and states.

Other new capital cities, notably New Delhi, Quezon City and Sri Jayewardanapura Kotte, were created too close to existing urban centres to have a distinct existence and become assimilated to them. In the case of the Philippines, the capital was anyway shifted back to the City of Manila in 1976, although Quezon was the most populous area in Metro Manila.

The shifting of the capital to Sri Jayawardanapura Kotte was mainly an egotistical exercise by J R Jayewardene - even tagging on the historical ‘Kotte’ name was only accomplished after a heroic effort by historian Douglas Ranasinghe.

Foreign missions

Like Quezon City, the new capital was to be bigger than the old one. SJP Kotte was to comprise the entirety of the old Kotte electorate, which included present Maharagama and Kaduwela. While Parliament was built on Duwa, in the Kotte urban area, the hospital and renamed university were located in Maharagama and the new government offices were built mainly in Kaduwela.

When R. Premadasa became President he halted the process and reversed it somewhat. Plans for moving foreign missions to the new capital were scrapped - so the new British High Commission and Chinese Embassy were built in Bauddhaloka Mawatha in Colombo, where the new Russian Embassy is also planned.

Chandrika Kumaratunga planned to build a new President’s House complex in Madiwela, which would have shifted the executive to SJP Kotte, but this was scrapped due to opposition by the UNP. So the new capital is in the same limbo that Quezon was in.

What the new Sri Lanka, which is emerging from the dying embers of the recent conflict, needs is a new capital. Not so much for the reasons that the modern federal capitals were built - to enhance the separation between the federal and state governments - but to reduce the socio-economic distance between the people and the seat of government, to finally break with colonialism.

Colombo is a colonial Westernised island perched on the West coast, with a hinterland which lives and breathes a different culture and language. Sri Lanka proper starts just past near a popular fast food outlet, at the bridge to Rajagiriya. The representatives of the people need to be closer to their voters in mind as well as body, and being at the centre of a rich commercial hub is not appropriate.

There are several growth centres around which economic and urban expansion can be expected to take place: Colombo itself, Jaffna in the North, Hambantota in the South and Trincomalee in the East.

None of these are suited to be the national capital; what is required is a place geographically equidistant from them and socially located at an equivalent distance from the predominant cultural milieu.

Major tourist attractions

Kandy and Anuradhapura would have made good choices, except that, while the former is geographically too restricted - expansion is precluded - and the latter is too far from the centre of things, they are both regional capitals.

The logical choice would be in the environs of Greater Dambulla, which is located at the geographical centre of the country. It is also at the socio-economic heart of the country, in the midst of some of the best agricultural areas. It is not far from the plantations and to some of the major tourist attractions.

The Greater Dambulla Development Plan, approved by the cabinet in 2005, defines the boundaries of the area as the existing Matale District East Boundary, the Grama Niladhari Division boundaries from Habarana to Kekirawa, from the Thibbatu Wewa, Kala Wewa and Balalu Wewa to the Matale District Boundary, and hence to the Sudu Ganga and Amban Ganga.

The plan envisages five growth centres: Dambulla, Habarana/Sigiriya, Galewela, Madatugama and Naula/Nalanda. The last-named is the most salubrious, and would be a natural choice for a capital.

The current population of the Greater Dambulla area is about 200,000 and under the development plan should rise to 300,000 by 2020. There is room within this area for the extra 200,000 or so people who would need to be accommodated if the capital were shifted here. Most importantly, there is plenty of water for sustaining the population expansion.

Communications network

The plan envisages extension of the Kandy-Matale railway and new railway line from Kurunegala. The old Royal Air Force Minneriya base at Hingurakgoda could be revived as a regional airport to serve the area. The completion of a communications network would require a Motorway, further developing the area.

The cost of building the new city could be met by savings from the present high rents and by leasing out government offices in Colombo - where overcrowding would be ameliorated. It would also help stimulate the construction sector. Most vitally, it would signify a break with our past and would look forward to a glorious future.