Sri Lanka Ministry of Urban Development (Patrick Wakely)

Patrick Wakely undertook a mission for the Sri Lanka Government to review development plans for the Colombo Metropolitan Region.

In December Patrick Wakely was an invited guest at the 62nd Annual Sessions of the Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science (SLAAS), of which the theme was ‘Science and Regional Development’. He also undertook a short mission for the Sri Lanka Ministry of Urban Development and Water Supply to review development plans for the Colombo Metropolitan Region.

In 1998 the Urban Development Authority published a Colombo Metropolitan Region Structure Plan and in 2004 the Sri Lanka Board of Investment produced a Western Region Megapolis Plan covering the same jurisdiction. In 2006 the National Physical Planning Department released a National Physical Policy and Plan 2006-2030 for the whole country. The review entailed making an overall assessment of the two regional structure plans, comparing their approaches and making tentative recommendations for reconciling them in the context of the new national development plan.