With just 20 days to go for the grand opening of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit, the Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) is scrambling to give the city a facelift and put in place essential features in time for the big event. It is understood that the CMC feels hugely challenged by the upcoming event, and that it is also facing financial and time constraints.
Funds for all this work has still to be approved by Parliament.
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| The Colombo Muncipal Council is rushing road development work in time for the SAARC summit. |
The supplementary budget to cover the CMC’s projected expenditure for SAARC is expected to be presented to Parliament on Friday.
The CMC’s long list of things to do include improving roads and drainage, fixing road furniture and street lighting, marking road lanes, putting up 600 flag poles, setting up pandals at specified locations, trimming trees along the SAARC routes, brightening up the Vihara Maha Devi Park and putting a coat of paint on CMC buildings and structures.
CMC commissioner Badrani Jayawardena said getting the roads ready on time posed the biggest challenge. Meanwhile, the CMC is attending to minor road work with funds from its own budget.
“The road development work is going to cost an estimated Rs. 265.75 million,” she said. “We have more than 25 kilometres of city roads to work on. We have allocated Rs. 79.6 million from our CMC budget for road development alone, and we are waiting another Rs. 186.18 million from the government.”
The next most costly item on the CMC’s SAARC expenses list is drainage improvement, at an estimated Rs. 24.44 million. The CMC can contribute only Rs. 13.39 million towards this expense.
“We have identified 25 places for drainage improvement,” the CMC’s Ms. Jayawardena said. “At present, we are working on the sewerage line in Wellawatte. We have paid the State Engineering Corporation Rs. 8 million to fix it in a period of 20 days.”
Work on street signs and signposts will cost an estimated Rs. 22.9 million. The CMC is currently calling for tenders to set up 300 poles for this purpose.
“A lack of sponsors is another issue the CMC is facing,” she said. “A decision has been made to provide carts for pavement vendors, but this provision will be limited to a certain area because of a lack of sponsors.”
UNP, JVP undecided on vote for huge summit budget
The UNP and the JVP are still undecided whether they will vote in favour of the massive supplementary estimate of more than Rs 2.8 billion to meet costs for the upcoming SAARC summit. The supplementary estimate will be presented to Parliament on Friday.
UNP Kandy district MP Lakshman Kiriella said his Party had been informed of the supplementary estimate, but that a breakdown on how the money would be used would be made known to them only on Monday. “We must know why so much money is being spent at a time of great hardship,”. he said. JVP Parliamentary Group Leader Anura Dissanayaka said his Party would decide about the vote on Monday.
Meanwhile, the Government has a majority in the House to secure approval for the estimate, even without the Opposition’s votes.
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