Sri Lanka's The Sunday Times newspaper citing documents submitted to the cabinet of ministers said land surrounding a British colonial era administration build in the capital will be leased to India's Krrish group.
The 99-year lease will be sold for 4.9 billion rupees (37.1 million rupees). The land includes 'Transworks House' a which earlier housed a Public Works Department (PWD) of a British era administration.
The development will be called the 'Transworks Tower'.
The tower will be built on land bordering the capital's Chatham Street, Lotus Road, D R Wijewardene Mawatha and York Street, on land leased from Sri Lanka's Urban Development Authority, the newspaper said.
A part of the land has been leased to state-run People's Bank and the Central Bank (for 100.4 million rupees), by the UDA earlier has not been developed.
The land is now used as a car park.
The newspaper quoted documents as saying that the Indian firm will "offer the Central Bank of Sri Lanka in perpetuity, 400 car parking spaces, 10 bus parking spaces and commercial space of 3,000 square metres in consideration of the capitalised price of the leasehold value of the land and in respect of CBSL’s initiation of the project, and investment in its initial stages."
The report said there will be no investments by the Treasury. It is not clear whether an 'investment' by the Central Bank is in cash.
The project has been described as a "public private" partnership, and representatives of the Central Bank, the UDA and finance ministry will come up with the roles and conditions related to public and private sector roles, the report said.
The project will be classified as a 'strategic development' indicating that it will qualify for sweeping tax relief under Sri Lanka's Board of Investment.
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