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Krrish Square Platinum One
Tower Hyatt Regency Dawson Grand Towers
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The 2012 prize was awarded to New York
City, for its remarkable transformation from one at risk in the post-September
11 period. New York is the second winner of this award since the prize was
started in 2009. It was selected by the Nominating Committee and the Prize
Council from 62 nominations received from across the world, after a rigorous
two-tier selection process. In Colombo, steps have been taken by
improving the quality of the road network and beautification of the city to
make the metropolis one of the greenest and cleanest cities in Asia. One of the
biggest problems in Colombo was flooding, Several artificial lakes were created
with parks being built in these areas to collect excess water and this has
proved to be successful as the flooding has decreased to a great extent. Canals
were cleaned and a new speed boat service is on the cards which would help
passenger transport to a great extent.
The second gray area in the City of
Colombo was the shanties. Statistics revealed that over 18,000 acres in the
city were occupied by them. Though some shanties were unauthorised, the UDA
went out of its way, not only to relocate the inhabitants, but also to provide
them quality housing with attached toilets and two rooms in place of their
current 'all in one room' shelter. In the five-star city hotel segment, a
shortfall of 1,500 hotel rooms by 2016 would be seen in meeting the expected tourist
arrivals trend where the city is currently equipped with 2,000 hotel rooms. A
deficit would be evident till 2016/17 as only two five-star hotels out of the
proposed projects are off the ground currently (of capacity 700 rooms).
Currently, Colombo is only equipped
with 2,000 five-star rooms which is not enough to meet the demand. With the
completion of the Movenpick and Hyatt projects, there would be another 700
rooms being added during the next three to four years. Apart from these city
hotels coming up, new luxury and semi-luxury apartments, At the moment, Colombo and the suburbs have
100 apartment projects ranging from standard to luxury and most of them are
fully sold out or al least 80 percent sold.
Some of the main mixed development projects that would help Colombo
increase its claim for the 'most livable city' award are Havelock City, Krrish
Square, AVIC Mixed Development, Crown Mixed Development Project, Integrated
Resort by John Keells Holdings, Hyatt Regency Colombo, EoN Resorts, Liberty Square
and Tower and Platinum One.
The apartments that are planned include
Fairway Sky Gardens, Iconic 110 Parliament Road, Altair Luxury Residencies,
ON320 Apartments and Destiny Apartments, Malls and Residency. The hotels that
are currently being built include Movenpick Colombo, Shangri-La Colombo,
Sheraton Colombo, Marino Sands Hotel, ITC Hotel and Suncity Business Hotel. Colonial
buildings and other large buildings in prime locations in the city have been
refurbished and rented to earn an income while catering to the demand, by the
UDA.
However, at that time, the only
sizeable office spaces available in Colombo were the World Trade Centre
(750,000 square feet in total), HNB Towers and Access Towers (200,000 square
feet in total). Subsequent to the demand, the rents also doubled in the Colombo
commercial complexes. In addition to these areas, the road network coupled with
the free flow of traffic within the city, international standard pavements
providing access to the visually handicapped, recreational, shopping and
entertainment complexes are also being developed. These would take Colombo to a
new phase and the country closer to its goal of becoming the Wonder of Asia.
