Govt to promote water-based tourism & passenger transport
The proposal for the promotion of tourism and passenger transport activities by using water sources of Sri Lanka under a public-private partnership has received Cabinet approval. According to the government, as Sri Lanka is an island full of water sources and water flows, there is a possibility to use these resources effectively to develop the tourism industry and urban passenger transport. As such, attention has been focused on starting a boat service covering several areas using water flows that exist within the island and as well as the coastline.
It has been proposed to launch a coastline transport service between Puttalam-Fort, Fort-Galle, and Galle-Matara and facilitate the promotion of tourism and passenger transport through the development of required infrastructure facilities.
Further, it is also expected to promote the tourism industry by providing inland water resource facilities using potential water sources such as Hamilton Canal, Bera Lake, Diyawanna Oya, and Madu Ganga.
Accordingly, the Cabinet of Ministers has approved the proposal presented by the Minister of Tourism to do a feasibility study in respect of the implementation of the relevant project and to implement the proposed project as a public-private combined program based on the results of the feasibility study.
