Hon. (Prof.) Ruwan Ranasinghe - Deputy Minister of Tourism
On behalf of the Minister, the Deputy Minister stated that the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority owns 632 acres, 3 roods and 5 perches of land in the Trincomalee District, including major extents at Kuchchaveli and Nilaveli. He said the lands face significant encroachment issues, with action being taken to remove unauthorized occupants, while tourism resort development plans, investor leases, approvals and calls for Expressions of Interest are proceeding. Regarding the 12-acre Sweat Bay land, he said Red Rock Beach/Dilmah is in occupation, no authorization has been given, and the Divisional Secretary’s notice to vacate is subject to a writ application before court.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Hon. Speaker, on behalf of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Employment and Tourism, I answer:
¶ 02 (a) (i) Extents owned by SLTDA in Trincomalee District: - Kuchchaveli: 510 acres - Nilaveli (Rasultottam/Nilaveli): 60 acres - O5 State: 40 acres - Elaswatta: 10 acres - Sweat Bay: 12 acres, 3 roods, 05 perches Total: 632 acres, 3 roods, 05 perches.
¶ 03 (ii) There are significant threats from unauthorized occupants. Steps are being taken to remove them. Lands free of such issues are being planned as themed tourism resorts. For the 510-acre Kuchchaveli area, the master plan allocates 137 acres for elephant corridors, 138 acres for administration, public areas, public beach access and internal roads. Currently, 79 acres have been leased to investors; some projects are underway while others are in approval. A further 82 acres are under consideration for approval. The remaining 74 acres, along with Rasultottam and Elaswatta lands, have been advertised for investors; EoIs are open until 13 October 2025. Key challenges include encroachment and lack of water supply infrastructure.
¶ 04 (iii) Yes.
¶ 05 (iv) 12 acres, 3 roods, 05 perches.
¶ 06 (v) Red Rock Beach / Dilmah company.
¶ 07 (vi) No.
¶ 08 (vii) The Divisional Secretary has issued notice to vacate. The company has filed a writ application seeking to prevent enforcement. The case was re-fixed for 03 October 2025.
¶ 09 (b) Does not arise.
Provenance
- Source
- Hansard, Tuesday, 7 October 2025 ·No. 22573 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
- Page · column
- not yet extracted — page/column anchors are not in the current dataset; the source PDF is the citable location.
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Cite as: Hon. (Prof.) Ruwan Ranasinghe - Deputy Minister of Tourism. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 7 October 2025. No. 22573. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/9828