Kandy to be Sri Lanka’s first ‘smart city’

The Government hopes to make Kandy the first ‘smart city’ in Sri Lanka and cabinet approval will be sought for this.

Minister of Urban Development and?Water Supply?Rauff Hakeem said that funding will be sought for the project from foreign donor agencies.

“We will later expand that to Galle, Colombo and other areas,” the Minister told reporters in Kandy.

He said the project will not be very costly and the Government will be able to implement it with USD 10-15 million. We maybe able to do two or three cities. I am sure we will be able to procure that kind of funding from one of the multilateral agencies,” he said.

The Minister noted that in India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has identified 100 cities to implement the ‘smart city; concept.

Hakeem also noted that while the idea of the National Government was for only two years, President Maithripala Sirisena had proposed that the?National Government continue for five years.

He said that if the National Government sets a goal to continue for five years then one can expect a stable Government to be in place.

“In the past I have worked with coalition Governments which have not lasted that long. But here the President and the Prime Minister are working well together,” he noted.

Hakeem also noted that a new political culture has been introduced in Parliament with Tamil National Alliance (TNA) leader R. Sampanthan being appointed the leader of the opposition.

He said that the appointment of Sampanthan as opposition leader will help the reconciliation process in Sri Lanka. (Colombo Gazette)