May 26, Colombo: Sri Lanka is to accelerate the development of the capital city Colombo at a cost of 16.65 billion rupees with full funding from the World Bank.

The cabinet has approved the funding for the Metro Colombo Urban Development Project aimed to improve planning and delivery of priority infrastructure and local services in the Metro Colombo Region.

The US$ 150 million project will reduce the occurrence of floods affecting the people and assets in the region, implement medium and small scale infrastructure projects benefiting the residents of the metro area and enhance the institutional capacity of local authorities.

The cabinet yesterday granted approval to a proposal submitted by President Mahinda Rajapaksa requesting 50 million rupees for the government to establish the Project Management Unit.

The project is to be commenced in the latter part of 2011 and is expected to be completed within three years.