Sinkhole of national wealth - Hambantota

Thursday, 25 April 2013

President of Sri Lanka, HE Mahinda Rajapaksa is well known for the service he is doing to his home town. But the benefits of developing Hambantota is questionable. Some of the most outstanding development activities in Hambantota are Magampura harbour, Mattala Rajapaksa international airport, Mahinda Rajapaksa cricket stadium and southern express way.

Some of these projects have been proved a failure while it's doubt full whether other projects are timely. Many members of opposition and some government politicians talk about this biggest sinkhole of national wealth. But the current regime and president does not seem to give a break for this utter waste of national wealth.

First and foremost this is my opinion on the Hambantota harbour.

It is clearly evident from historical records that the best natural harbour in the Asia was Trincomali harbour. Historical records show that Trincomali harbour was a famous 'halt' for ships on long voyages to top-up their supplies. Situated on the famous silk route, Trincomali harbour made its way to the earliest world maps. It is a pathetic situation to see Asia's best natural harbour being neglected by its own country. A new harbour at Hambantota is not a wasteful construction, if it was made after expanding the existing harbours to their fullest. But instead what we see is a new harbour being built at Hambantota just because it's president's home town. We are aware of the massive cost involved in breaking the bed rock under the sea to make way for the Hambantota harbour.

Trincomali was the main harbour when Sri Lanka was ruled by kings. When it was a British colony, still it was Trincomali. But Colombo harbour was built since the commercial capital badly needed a harbour. So, building the Colombo harbour is justified. With the new harbour at Hambantota, development of Galle harbour has come to a standstill. Building a completely new harbour at Hambantota is not in any way justified. Instead or developing existing harbours, a fancy name "Maagampura" has been coined to the new harbour to make it sound an old, important one.

Next is the Mattala Rajapaksa airport. When Sri Lanka was a British colony, the only airport was at Palali. First international airport was built at Katunayake since its close proximity to Colombo.

On my opinion, a small island like ours does not need another airport. There is plenty of room at Katunayake. We do not have heavy air traffic to build two airports. BIA can be further expanded (even to land airbus A380 and Bouying dreamliners) and facilities upgraded. Instead of spending on the need of the hour, national wealth goes down the drain. What we see now is Bandaranayake and Rajapaksa (airports) fighting to land plains on them.

Now it's the cricket stadium at Hambantota. This is a battle between Premadasa and Rajapaksa (stadiums) at the cost of taxpayers' money. There are many stadiums around the country which could be developed to play day and night matches. Anyone but Rajapaksa regime can understand that developing an existing stadium costs less than building a new one.

The power failure and wasp attack during the recently concluded Bangladeshi tour of Sri Lanka showcases the quality of the new stadium.

Southern express way is nothing wrong, but not the need of the hour. It was to be built from Colombo to Hambantota. But since it took much longer than expected to complete the entire project, first phase was declared open from Kottawa (Colombo) to Pinnaduwa (Galle) on December 2012. I myself (being from Galle) consider the express way such a great asset and in fact, makes traveling ever more quick :-). But Kandy - Colombo express way should have been the first priority. Having regularly travelled on the Galle road and Kandy road (both old and new) I know by experience Kandy badly needs a highway. Galle needs, But not so badly.

Finally it's very clear that centralized development of Hambantota is not needed. But an overall development in rural areas is a dire necessity. Transport sector should be improved in Colombo as well as rural areas

There are much more important matters to attend than developing only one rural village at the cost of taxpayers all over the country.

Courtesy - M.Nasri Zuhair