Sri Lankan govt extends agreement of port city project

COLOMBO - The new Sri Lankan government on Thursday said that it had decided to extend the agreement of a China-funded multi-billion dollar port city project in capital Colombo for a further six months.

Cabinet Spokesperson Dr Rajitha Senaratne told journalists that the agreement signed between the Sri Lankan government and the China Communications Construction Company Ltd (CCCC) in September 2014, expired on Tuesday.

However since the project remained temporarily suspended, the government extended the agreement for a further six months, Senaratne added.

"The company was supposed to complete certain parts of the project by September 2015. But they had to stop that. So we have extended the period by another 6 months," the spokesman said.

He further assured that if the environmental reports called for by the government are favorable then the project would continue without further delay.

The $1.4 billion project which is funded by the CCCC was suspended in March after concerns were raised over some aspects of the project.

However the government said recently that the project would continue and be part of its megapolis development in order to transform the country into a "smart and technologically advanced nation" in the coming five years.