Asia/Pacific News
Port Authority in $15 Billion Funding Bid
The Sri Lanka Ports Authority is looking for $15 billion in investments over the next 10 years to develop a 'port city' on 230 hectares of reclaimed beachfront bordering the country's main port of Colombo, the country's official news agency has said.
The $900 million reclamation process for the project, to be carried out by project investor and China Communications Construction Company Group (CCCC) subsidiary China Harbour Engineering Co Ltd (CHEC), is due to begin in October and is expected to be completed by January 2016.
Investors in the reclamation process will be entitled to a piece of the reclaimed area and will be expected to spend a further $2.5 billion on development of their land.
"We are going to call for an RFP (request for proposals), most probably around the end of 2013," Sri Lanka Ports Authority chairman Dr. Priyath Bandu Wickrema told Sri Lankan online news service Lanka Business Online.
Wickrema said he expected proposals for hotels, apartments, and shopping malls to come first, and was also planning for a mini golf course, a Formula 1 race track, and a yacht marina.
Last year Reuters reported the Ports Authority was hoping to reclaim "around 500 acres of land" for the project.
