COLOMBO : Urban Development and Housing Minister Prasanna Ranatunga has instructed the Urban Development Authority to handover the Viharamahadevi Park to the Colombo Municipal Council.
The Urban Development Authority has the ability to take over any property for development purposes.
That is according to Section 50 of the Urban Development Authority Act.
Minister Ranatunga says that the properties that have been taken over and developed should be returned to the institutions that belong to them.
In the world, the main point of the urban public parks built in the cities is the emergence of public parks in a free open environment that is not covered by walls, barriers and gates. The iron fences throughout the Viharamahadevi Park area have been removed and an environment without boundaries has been created.
Accordingly, during the renovation of the Viharamahadevi Garden under the Colombo Development Programme, the iron fence around the garden was removed and replaced by new plants such as Mee, Palu and Ebony and the renovation was carried out according to a new plan. Special street lamps have been used for decoration here. A path has been built where children can ride bicycles for fun or for physical health. In the new park you will also find fitness trails that anyone can benefit from. Former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa worked to modernise this park to suit the modern world. Accordingly, the Viharamahadevi Park, which was under the control of the Colombo Municipal Council until then, was taken over by the Urban Development Authority for renovation in 2011. The Viharamahadevi Park was renovated and opened in 2013 under the Colombo Metropolitan Associated City Development Project implemented by the Urban Development Authority with the support of the World Bank.
It has been more than ten years since the Viharamahadevi Park was renovated. Minister Ranatunga said that the minor renovation works that have come up so far should be completed promptly and the transfer of the Viharamahadevi Park to the Colombo Municipal Council should be expedited.
