Client

Ministry of Urban Development, Water Supply and Drainage
(World Bank – Strategic Cities Development Project)
Colombo, Sri Lanka

Joint venture

Keios (Italy), ECL (Sri Lanka)

Location

Kandy, Sri Lanka

Period

2015 – 2018

Project Description

Kandy is the main urban centre in the Central Province of Sri Lanka. It aspires to become a liveable and vibrant historic city encapsulating urban culture, identity and religious significance. Declared a UNESCO World Heritage site, it is home to the Temple of the Tooth which houses the Buddha’s tooth relic, thus making it one of the most revered cities in the country.

Located on a plateau, the city is nested among hilly terrain that constrains its spatial growth. Currently, the city suffers of major traffic congestion and of road weak conditions as well as of the lack of good pedestrian connectivity and vibrant public spaces, unplanned development, and low maintenance of infrastructure facilities. As a tourist destination, the city lacks quality facilities and attractions.

The main objective of the assignment was to upgrade key urban areas contributing towards transforming this city in a vibrant tourism and economic centre.

The project aimed at improving liveability by protecting the environment and developing the urban centre, reorganizing city functions to increase investment attractiveness, enhancing public urban spaces and achieving significant urban transformation to respond to economic growth.

The specific objective of the assignment was to support the Strategic Cities Development Project by: (i) developing an integrated urban scheme and identifying a list of investment projects; (ii) carrying out detailed A/E design for selected investment projects and preparing bidding documents; and (iii) ensuring oversight during implementation. The total cost of selected investment projects has been of $27 million.

Scope of Services

Stage 1: preparation of a vision statement and of an urban scheme leading to a list of investment project.
Stage 2: detailed A/E design and bidding documents of a selection of identified investment projects..