Key features of the port city:

The Colombo Port City — separate from but located adjacent to the Colombo Port, the country’s main harbour — is the third major port-related infrastructure project where China has a significant stake.

Pitched as a “world-class city for South Asia”, the development is envisioned under five distinct “precincts”.

1. The Financial District,
2. The Central Park Living,
3. The Island Living to come up as residential areas,
4. The Marina, which is planned as a leisure destination, and
5. The International Island, which would include educational institutions and convention centres.

The Port City project is scheduled for completion by 2041.

When was it launched?

The project was launched in September 2014 by Chinese President Xi Jinping during a visit to the island nation under the Mahinda Rajapaksa administration’s second term.

What is the extent of China’s involvement?

• The project is financed chiefly through Chinese investment amounting to $1.4 billion, via CHEC Port City Colombo, a unit of the State-owned China Communications Construction Company (CCCC).
• In return, the company will receive 116 hectares (of the total 269 hectares) on a 99-year lease.
• China Merchants Port Holdings has an 85% stake in the Colombo International Container Terminals Ltd. (CICT) at the Colombo Port, under a 35-year ‘Build Operate and Transfer’ agreement with the Sri Lanka Port Authority.

Repayment of the Chinese loan:

In 2017, the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe administration, unable to repay the Chinese loan with which it was saddled by the previous government, handed over the Hambantota Port in the Southern Province to China on a 99-year lease.

• Effectively, China has substantial control over two key infrastructure projects in Sri Lanka for a century.
• These projects are within the ambit of China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative, in which it sees strategically located Sri Lanka as a trusted partner.

What are the concerns?

Since its launch, the Colombo Port City project has faced opposition from environmentalists and fisherfolk, who feared that the project would affect marine life and livelihoods.

• However, in the absence of wider political and societal support, their resistance did not dent successive governments’ resolve to pursue the project.
• The more recent opposition was specific to the Colombo Port City Economic Commission Bill.
• Significantly, a section of Buddhist monks, wielding much influence in Sri Lankan politics and the Sinhala society, also opposed the Bill and said that it eroded Sri Lanka’s sovereignty.

Source: The Hindu