Diversified corporate giant Hayleys PLC says it has put on hold plans for a mega twin tower project due to a lack of government concessions, which have been offered to other similar projects. “We are looking for the same concessions that were given to other projects of strategic importance. If we don’t receive those this project won’t be commercially viable due to the cost of construction and all the taxes,” said Managing Director, Dipped Products/Executive Director, Hayleys, Sarath Ganegoda. Hayleys officially announced plans for the ‘World Export Centre’ on Deans Road, Colombo 10 in late 2016. At the time it said that it would be a state of the art “A” Grade office Twin Towers, with 55 floors each, having 3.8 million square feet of commercial office space. Hayleys Chairman/Chief Executive, Mohan Pandithage added that the company is ready to commence construction if concessions are granted. “The soil has been tested, the plans have been drawn and we have got all the approvals. It’s ready to start. We are just waiting to see if we get these concessions. We were going to put up two towers.” They made these comments during a media roundtable held to mark its 140^th year of operations last week. The company had earlier said that the twin tower project would provide working space for 20,000 employees, with ample parking for over 2,000 vehicles, three floors of retail and office amenities. As per the plans, the complex would have been three times the size of the current World Trade Centre twin towers. Hayleys PLC recently became the first listed corporate to surpass US$ 1 billion in revenue. It currently employs 33,000 people and accounts for 3.3% of the nation’s total export earnings.   Photo caption: From left: The Kingsbury PLC Managing Director and Haleys PLC Executive Director Lalin Samarawickrama, Hayleys Advantis Managing Director and Hayleys PLC Executive Ruwan Waidyaratne, Group Chairman/Managing Director Mohan Pandithage, Hayleys Group Executive Director and Dipped Products Managing Director Sarath Ganegoda, , Hayleys Agriculture Ltd Managing Director and Hayleys PLC Executive Director Jayanthi Dharmasena and Hayleys Group Head of Human Resources, Legal and Corporate Communication & Sustainability Darshi Talpahewa.