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Environmental issues halt $ 63 m cable car

01 Feb 2021

  • No proposal submitted to us: CEA

  Investors have expressed their desire to pull out of the € 52 million ($ 63.1 million) Nanu Oya to Nuwara Eliya cable car project because of delays caused by environmental regulations, The Morning learnt. “It has been about three to four years since this project was initiated and since we keep facing obstacles from various parties, investors have shown signs of wanting to withdraw,” Ministry of Tourism Secretary S. Hettiarachchi said, speaking to The Morning yesterday (31 January). Currently, the project has been halted due to Central Environmental Authority (CEA) and Forest Department environmental regulations. Hettiarachchi said he will hold discussions with the Forest Department and the CEA in the coming two weeks with the hope of coming to a solution to continue the project. “The project requires the Forest Department to release about 0.2 hectares of government land to erect about five cable car pillars, so we are trying to get these lands released. Minister of Wildlife and Forest Conservation C.B. Rathnayake said that he will support us in this. The CEA says that the landing point at the Gregory Lake car park in Nuwara Eliya has been gazetted as a non-buildable area. Our investors have agreed to come up with an environmentally friendly design and we hope to speak to the relevant authorities at the CEA in the coming two weeks as to how this project can progress”. Upon inquiry, Minister Rathnayake’s Media Secretary Sampath Gunarathna said that the Minister’s stance will be conveyed tomorrow (2). “The Minister is of the belief that this project must progress and his stance will be conveyed on Tuesday.” However, speaking to us yesterday (31 January), CEA Natural Resource Management Director Priyangani Gunathilake claimed that no proposal for a cable car project in this area has been submitted to the CEA. She added that a gazette notification from 2007 has recognised the Lake Gregory Environmental Protection Area regulating developments that can take place there. “We have not received such a proposal yet. But if we receive one, we can review it and see what could be done.” When inquired by The Morning last evening (31), Forest Department Additional Conservator General Tilak Premakantha claimed that that the Forest Department has not granted approval for the cable car project. “This project has not received approval from the Forest Department.” The cable car line is to start at the Nanu Oya Railway Station and go to the Lake Gregory car park through Single Tree Hill, Nuwara Eliya. It was reported in July 2019, that this project has received approval for this from the then Cabinet. The project was reported to have been proposed by a firm called Outdoor Engineering Lanka (Pvt.) Ltd. with an investment of $ 50 million.


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