Most tourists from India
India has edged past traditional leader Britain to secure its place as the biggest tourism generator for Sri Lanka.
The number of Indians visiting the island jumped 21.5 per cent to 82,434 in the first nine months of the year, the Ceylon Tourist Board said.
Britain, which enjoyed the number one slot earlier was at number two now with 68,493, a drop of seven per cent compared to the corresponding period last year.
The island had plans to increase its shopping attractions as most Indians visited the island for stop over holidays offered by Colombo’s national carrier Sri Lankan Airlines.
Overall, the number of tourists visiting Sri Lanka increased eight per cent to 402,585 during the first nine months of this year. However, hotels did not do well with occupancy dropping sharply.
The number of room nights spent by foreigners dropped to 240,307 compared to 377,839 last year.
Tourism earnings too dropped by 11 per cent to 208 million dollars.(PTI)
ADB to fund highway network
The Sri Lankan government has decided to reconstruct highway network in the country with the financial assistance of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the state-owned Daily News reported on Saturday.
With an estimated cost of US$ 208 million, the project, which aims at rehabilitating a number of grade A and B roads in western, central and eastern provinces, will receive the assistance from the ADB, Highways Ministry Secretary S. Amarasekere said.
‘‘The ADB will provide 150 million dollars of the estimated cost of the project including the expenses regarding land acquisition. This is the first time that a donor has agreed to provide funds for land acquisition,’he said.
Among the highways to be reconstructed under the project are the Puttalam-Anuradhapura, Udakanda-Mahiyanganaya, Nuwara Eliya- Badulla and the Hatton-Nuwara Eliya highways.
The Sri Lankan government and the ADB finalized negotiations on the implementation of the project on Wednesday, Amarasekere said, adding ‘We are hopeful that the reconstruction could be commenced early next year.’
Dhanapala quits
The Sri Lankan government’s top peace official, a candidate to become the next U.N. secretary-general, resigned on Wednesday, a week before a presidential election.
Jayantha Dhanapala, head of the government’s Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process, will step down at the end of November, the secretariat’s deputy secretary general, John Gooneratne, told Reuters.
‘He was appointed by the government and there’s an election coming, and he feels whoever comes in should have their own choice,’ Gooneratne added.
Outgoing President Chandrika Kumaratunga had accepted the resignation.
‘He has other plans that he needs to work on,’ Gooneratne said, referring to Dhanapala’s publicly announced bid to succeed U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
Peace talks have been suspended since the Liberation Tigers pulled out of them in 2003, and Dhanapala’s departure was not expected to have any immediate impact.
Dhanapala angered the Tigers in August when he said the government would not subdue a splinter rebel faction which is mounting attacks against the mainstream guerrillas in the east.
The Tigers accuse the military of helping the Karuna faction, a charge the military denies, and insist the government abide by the cease-fire and disarm paramilitaries.
‘They do not qualify as a paramilitary group because they were not there prior to the cease-fire agreement ... This is an internal problem of the LTTE,’ Dhanapala said at the time.
India has edged past traditional leader Britain to secure its place as the biggest tourism generator for Sri Lanka.
The number of Indians visiting the island jumped 21.5 per cent to 82,434 in the first nine months of the year, the Ceylon Tourist Board said.
Britain, which enjoyed the number one slot earlier was at number two now with 68,493, a drop of seven per cent compared to the corresponding period last year.
The island had plans to increase its shopping attractions as most Indians visited the island for stop over holidays offered by Colombo’s national carrier Sri Lankan Airlines.
Overall, the number of tourists visiting Sri Lanka increased eight per cent to 402,585 during the first nine months of this year. However, hotels did not do well with occupancy dropping sharply.
The number of room nights spent by foreigners dropped to 240,307 compared to 377,839 last year.
Tourism earnings too dropped by 11 per cent to 208 million dollars.(PTI)
ADB to fund highway network
The Sri Lankan government has decided to reconstruct highway network in the country with the financial assistance of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the state-owned Daily News reported on Saturday.
With an estimated cost of US$ 208 million, the project, which aims at rehabilitating a number of grade A and B roads in western, central and eastern provinces, will receive the assistance from the ADB, Highways Ministry Secretary S. Amarasekere said.
‘‘The ADB will provide 150 million dollars of the estimated cost of the project including the expenses regarding land acquisition. This is the first time that a donor has agreed to provide funds for land acquisition,’he said.
Among the highways to be reconstructed under the project are the Puttalam-Anuradhapura, Udakanda-Mahiyanganaya, Nuwara Eliya- Badulla and the Hatton-Nuwara Eliya highways.
The Sri Lankan government and the ADB finalized negotiations on the implementation of the project on Wednesday, Amarasekere said, adding ‘We are hopeful that the reconstruction could be commenced early next year.’
Dhanapala quits
The Sri Lankan government’s top peace official, a candidate to become the next U.N. secretary-general, resigned on Wednesday, a week before a presidential election.
Jayantha Dhanapala, head of the government’s Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process, will step down at the end of November, the secretariat’s deputy secretary general, John Gooneratne, told Reuters.
‘He was appointed by the government and there’s an election coming, and he feels whoever comes in should have their own choice,’ Gooneratne added.
Outgoing President Chandrika Kumaratunga had accepted the resignation.
‘He has other plans that he needs to work on,’ Gooneratne said, referring to Dhanapala’s publicly announced bid to succeed U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
Peace talks have been suspended since the Liberation Tigers pulled out of them in 2003, and Dhanapala’s departure was not expected to have any immediate impact.
Dhanapala angered the Tigers in August when he said the government would not subdue a splinter rebel faction which is mounting attacks against the mainstream guerrillas in the east.
The Tigers accuse the military of helping the Karuna faction, a charge the military denies, and insist the government abide by the cease-fire and disarm paramilitaries.
‘They do not qualify as a paramilitary group because they were not there prior to the cease-fire agreement ... This is an internal problem of the LTTE,’ Dhanapala said at the time.
