Over fifty percent of the Colombo city population lives in shanties, slums or dilapidated old housing schemes, which occupied nine percent of the total land extent of the city. A survey which is being conducted at 2010 by the Urban Development Authority has identified a total number of 68,812 families living in 1,499 community clusters (underserved settlements) which do not have a healthy environment for human habitation and access to basic infrastructure facilities such as clean water, electricity, sanitation etc. Relocation of these families in new housing schemes with acceptable standards will be one major step in the direction of transforming Colombo into a world recognized city with a clean and pleasing environment to cop up the city development plan objectives.
In order to cater to these objectives UDA has launched a program for construction of 50,000 housing units for relocation of underserved settlements of the city of Colombo and its immediate suburbs. For that purpose, introduce the Urban Regeneration Project.
Vision
To eliminate slums, shanties and other dilapidated housing from the city of Colombo by relocating dwellers in modern houses and liberated lands to be utilized for commercial and mix development.
Main objective
To eliminate shanties, slums and other dilapidated housing from the city by relocating dwellers in modern houses.
The Concept of the present Urban Regeneration project
Distribution Pattern of the Undeserved
Settlements
When examine the CMC area land use pattern, it is observed that all over the city has been spread out undeserved settlements and widely spread to the Colombo - North and Colombo - East area (Please see the picture I). Hence UDA Proposed and decided to implement more housing projects in these areas while upgrading the physical social and economic infrastructures in parallel to the housing development on behalf of their livelihood development.
Model of the Housing Unit
The housing unit design of the URP has designed to be 550 sq.ft land area with a living room, pantry, two bedrooms, a washroom and a balcony with the estimated average unit cost of 6.5 million. The basic infrastructure faculties including drinking water, three phase electricity, solid waste disposal and sewerage and drainage systems that are linking to the centralized city system together with the landscaped common areas and internal roads are to be provided in each housing project.
Components of Housing Unit
Living Room
Two Bed Rooms
Kitchen
Wash Room / Toilet
Balcony
Completed Housing Projects
URP Completed Housing Projects In 2013 – 2014 (Low income category)
- Proposed Project will implement at Maharagama, Kurunegala.
- Estate infrastrcute development housing projects are in process at Millawawatta, Horana and Maliboda, Kegalle.
Support to Colombo Urban Regeneration Project (SCURP)
Support to Colombo Urban Regeneration Project (SCURP) was commenced with the funding aid of Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) in 2019 to assist the continuation of the ongoing Colombo Urban Regeneration Project. SCURP supports the continued implementation of URP Phase-III but with significant improvements such as the improvements in technical design, resettlement and post-resettlement policy, housing maintenance arrangements, innovation in redevelopment approach, and review of longer-term sustainability of public intervention in housing.
The SCURP consists of three components;
Component I - construction of about 5,500 housing units;
Component II - maximizing the revenue from the land that will become available after the households in underserved communities move into the new housing units;
Component III - technical support and policies enhancement.
The key objective of SCURP is to improve the housing conditions of low-income communities and increase land use efficiency in Colombo through investments in the construction of affordable housing and redevelopment of land, along with the associated enhancement of systems and policies. The proposed results indicators for these objectives include:
number of low-income and lower-middle income households that move from underserved settlements to newly constructed housing units with improved utilities and facilities, and under improved resettlement practice
The increase in the land value of the areas made available for redevelopment
Implementation period of SCURP is six (06) years from July, 2019 to June, 2025.
