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President’s House & Temple Trees to be moved out to Kotte

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The President’s House, the Secretariat, and the Prime Minister’s official residence Temple Trees have been earmarked to be moved out of Colombo city to Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte and may be kept open only as a tourist attraction.

Urban Development Authority (UDA) Director General Prasad Ranaweera told that on the instructions of President Ranil Wickremesinghe,  they were looking for alternative land in the Sri Jaywardenapura-Kotte area to have the administrative complex in one location.

He said that after the identification of the location they hoped to report back to the President to draw out plans for a phased shift of the buildings.

Under a proposed ‘New Colombo Heritage City Plan’, the President’s House, the Secretariat and the Temple Trees building and the Prime Minister’s office on Flower Road are likely to be protected as tourist attractions.

Under the plan, a string of other buildings in Colombo city are to be re-offered for lease to investors.

Accordingly, the General Post Office, the Foreign Ministry building, Police Headquarters, Air Force Headquarters, Navy Headquarters, Visumpaya, Shrvasthi (former MP’s hostel), the Gafoor building, the Irrigation Department building at Jawatte Road, the Welikada Prisons and the old Defence Ministry building at Galle Face have been identified to be leased out.

He said the objective was to lease out the buildings for boutique hotels where the investors would be able to renovate the building while preserving its original identity.

Mr. Ranaweera said they would be looking at leasing out the buildings for more than 30 years with concessionary terms on taxes.

He said that under the Heritage City Plan, they also hoped to have a sheltered corridor between the Gafoor building and the Port City so that the people could make use of the passage.

He said the President had instructed the UDA itself to carry out some of the development activities and hand them over to the investors to avoid delays and issues in acquiring lands.

Urban Development Prasanna Ranatunga Minister told the Sunday Times discussions had begun with potential investors and among them had been investors from Georgia.  He said all measures would be taken to preserve the identity of the old buildings.

(sundaytimes.lk)

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Names of Mayors and Chairpersons of several LG bodies gazetted

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A gazette extraordinary has been issued containing the names of Mayors, Deputy Mayors, Chairpersons, and Vice-Chairpersons of several local government institutions.

The names have been gazetted based on recommendations sent to the National Election by political parties and independents groups that secured a majority in local government bodies at the recently concluded Local Government (LG) election.    

Accordingly, the Election Commission has taken steps to publish the names from among the political parties and independent groups that secured a majority at the Local Government election held recently.

The names of the elected and nominated members for the respective local authorities, following the Local Government election were also published in the government gazette based on the respective administrative districts.

As per the gazette notification issued by the Minister of Public Administration, Provincial Councils, and Local Government on February 17, 2025, the term of office of local government bodies is scheduled to commence on June 2, 2025

පළාත් පාලන ආයතනවල සභාපතිවරුන්ගේ නම් ඇතුළත් ගැසට් පත්‍රය නිකුත් කෙරේ by poornima

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Weather Alert: Showers to ease in Southwest, strong winds forecast in North

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Prevailing showery condition in the southwestern part of the island is expected to reduced gradually from today (01st)

Showers or thundershowers will occur at times in Western, Sabaragamuwa, Central and North-western provinces and in Galle and Matara districts.

Showers or thundershowers may occur at a few places in Uva province and in Ampara and Batticaloa districts during the afternoon or night.

Fairly strong winds of about (30-40) kmph can be expected at times over Western slopes of the central hills and in Northern, North-central and North-western provinces and in Hambantota and Trincomalee districts.

The general public is kindly requested to take adequate precautions to minimize damages caused by temporary localized strong winds and lightning during thundershowers.

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Aluthgamage and Fernando assigned printing work in prison

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Former Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage and former Sathosa Chairman Nalin Fernando, sentenced this week to jail for 20 and 25 years, respectively, have been assigned duties in the printing section at the Welikada prison, sources said.

Both of them are being held together away from the main section of the prison’s ‘chapel’ section, where prisoners serving life sentences and those convicted of murder and rape are held. The prison’s printing section prints its own documentation.

Prison sources said that in placing them in relevant wards to serve their jail term, the authorities had taken into consideration the security of the two convicts, as they might have had political enemies.

Mr Aluthgamage was handed a 20-year term of rigorous imprisonment, while Mr Fernando was given a 25-year term of rigorous imprisonment by a High Court trial-at-bar after being found guilty of causing a Rs 53 million loss to the state.

They were accused of importing carrom boards and checkers boards through Sathosa during the 2015 presidential elections and distributing them to clubs.

Their lawyers said yesterday they were awaiting the certified copy of the judgement to prepare the appeal papers. The appeal will be considered by the Supreme Court.

(sundaytimes.lk)
(This story, originally published by sundaytimes.lk has not been edited by SLM staff)

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