The government’s planned Western Megapolis Project will adopt a zone-based approach taking into account residential zones and economic zones for optimal development while the implementation of the project will be fast tracked in the next three years, a top government official said recently.
Speaking at a conference attended by a large number of architects, planners and academia, Deputy Minister of Policy Planning and Economic Development, Dr. Harsha de Silva said since zoning in Sri Lanka’s urban spaces has thus far been limited, this has resulted in numerous inconveniences and congestion to the people.
“What the Megapolis is trying to do is to reduce the number of inhabitants in certain places and increase the number in other places.
Thereby, we want to create these centers of inhabitants of people and connect these locations with modern, efficient transport and other infrastructure facilities,” the Deputy Minister said at the inauguration of the fifth International Conference on Urban Design on Cities, People and Places (ICCPP2017).
He said the planned project will encompass population centres, industrial townships, plantation townships and even a dedicated forest city in Matugama connected by an efficient transportation system.
“I know it has taken a while for things to get moving, but I am aware a large amount of money has been allocated for the work to be fast tracked. So what you will see in the next three years is faster implementation of Megapolis development than what we saw in the first two years where we spent time in building the initial framework,” Dr. de Silva said. He pointed out that the delay was due to government spending time to address teething problems such as “getting the registrations and regulations sorted out, getting the money shifted to the right place and so on.”