Given the burgeoning need to expand the Central Business District and develop the Western Province of Sri Lanka as a Megapolis, the Sri Lankan Government in partnership with a Chinese foreign investor is attempting to develop a state of the art new city by reclaiming the sea. However, this initiative to develop a state of the art modern city at an investment cost of US$ 1.5 billion has met stiff opposition from politicians, environmentalists, and various NGO’s claiming to represent public interests. Once unceremoniously and unilaterally suspended by the new coalition government established in December 2015, the project is now, contractually, back on track. However, those opposed to the project have not given up their determination fight it. Already, a couple of legal actions have been initiated by public interest groups challenging the project inter alia on the basis that it is environmentally, socially and economically unviable and has been implemented violating the fundamental rights of certain communities and also in complete ignorance of the public trust doctrine. In this background, a key aim of this paper is to outline the tumultuous beginnings of this project due to diverse approaches of successive governments and to do a critique of the applicable laws and policies to ascertain the merits, if any, of the environmental, social and economic objections to the project. The paper will outline the salient legal provisions of commercial agreements of the project which appear to have been misconstrued by those opposed to it and test the merits of the hypothesis that the project was ultra vires and a threat to national sovereignty. Further, since it is essential that development should be within the boundaries of sustainability and given that no major sea reclamation project had been carried out in Sri Lanka prior to the Colombo Port City Project, this paper will also test the validity of several seemingly insurmountable suggestions that the environmental studies were inadequately carried out and that social and economic impacts have been ignored when approving the project. Based on such analysis, this paper will endeavour to argue that despite the opposition it attracts, the Colombo Port City Project is of strategic importance to Sri Lanka and that its contribution to the social and economic fabric of the country far outweighs the concerns that have been raised by those opposed to it. The paper will also endeavour to establish the legal validity of the contractual obligations created under the project agreements and conclude that the Project, after going through much refinement, legally, politically, economically and environmentally, is now strategically poised to steer the development of Colombo as a modern sustainable city.
Keywords:Port City, Sri Lanka, Development, Reclamation, Legal and Policy
9d. Law and sustainability
