(LANKAPUVATH | COLOMBO) – Urban Development and Housing Minister Prasanna Ranatunga has instructed the Urban Development Authority to hand over the Viharamahadevi Park back to the Colombo Municipal Council.
According to Section 50 of the Urban Development Authority Act, the Urban Development Authority has the ability to take over any property for development purpose, said the Ministry of Urban Development and Housing.
Accordingly, Minister Ranatunga has said that the properties that have been taken over for renovation work and developed in this way should be handed back to the same institutions they belonged.
During the tenure of former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa as the Secretary of the Ministry of Defense and Urban Development, arrangements have been made to modernize the park.
Accordingly, the Viharamahadevi Park, which was under the Colombo Municipal Council, was taken over by the Urban Development Authority for renovation in 2011.
The Viharamahadevi Park renovated under the Metro Colombo Urban Development Project (MCUDP) implemented by the Urban Development Authority with World Bank assistance was reopened in 2013.
One of the main points of urban public parks being built in major cities around the world is the emergence of public parks in a free open environment that is not covered by walls, barriers, gates, etc. Taking it as an example, the iron fences in the part of the park where renovation work was done have been removed and an environment without boundaries has been created.
Accordingly, the iron fence around the park has been removed during modernization and replaced by planting big trees such as bee, palu, buruta and renovated according to a new plan. Special street lamps have been used in the park for its decoration.
