CHEC Port City Colombo (Pvt) Ltd is a wholly owned subsidiary of China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC), which in turn is a subsidiary of China Communications Construction Company Limited (CCCC), a majority state-owned enterprise with headquarters in Beijing
Colombo Port City agreement between the government and the CHEC Port City Colombo (Pvt) Ltd will soon be in the public domain following the Right to Information Commission order to release it to the public.
The PPP agreement raises many questions on environmental and investment issues and the commission referred questions to CHEC Port City Colombo, despite the Chinese company stating that the government is to provide the infrastructure for sewage treatment under the Public Private Partnership that covers the development.
It lso makes the government responsible for water supply, energy supply, waste removal and public transport.According to official estimates Port City project will result in additional water demand of 39,000 cubic metres per day.
The developer has said the increased demand will be met by the state water authority and that it is encouraging its private partners to recycle wastewater.
Some environmental activists and citizens question whether authorities have the plan or budget for the significant investment required to accommodate PCC, given Colombo’s over-stressed public infrastructure and the abject state of Sri Lanka’s public finances.
CHEC Port City Colombo said a new multi-lane motorway known as the “Outer Circular Highway (OCH)” will meet the development’s transport needs and it will seek to “promote a more pedestrian form of commuting with many sheltered walkways and green canopies”.
While CHEC Port City Colombo has argued that PCC has already generated “significant interest in the international community foreign firms may be deterred from investing in the project if it does not allow them to meet internal sustainability targets for reducing carbon emissions, waste and water use, and protecting the marine environment.
Many residents in Colombo also express concerns that Chinese investors could take a bigger stake in PCC if the project fails, although there has been no suggestion of such a possibility by either the government or the developer.
The Right to Information Commission has ordered the release of the Tripartite Agreement signed between the Government of Sri Lanka and the CHEC Port City Colombo and warned that the failure to release the information could result in the prosecution of the relevant officials.
The order came following two appeals by M.F.A. Mansoor from Puwakwatta Estate in Kotadeniyawa and the Center for Environmental Justice in Colombo.
The appeals were taken up before Commission Chairman retired Justice Upali Abeyrathne, and Commissioners retired Justice Rohini Walgama, Attorney-at-Law Kishali Pinto-Jayawardena, Attorney-at-Law Jagath Liyana Arachchi and A.M Nahiya.
The two Appeals in issue were taken up together given the commonality of the information requests in question — the Tripartite Agreement – between the Megapolis Ministry, the Urban Development Authority and the CHEC Port City Colombo — signed on August 12, 2016, for the development of a new international financial city.
