Lotus Tower project is literaly the “Tip of the Iceberg” a the UDA is planning a major facelift to the Colmbo Beira lake water front.  It is in a mission to reclaim the beira lake for general public. This mainly done by developing a linear park around the beira [...]]]>

19 March 2012, courtesy of www.uda.lk

Lotus Tower project is literaly the “Tip of the Iceberg” a the UDA is planning a major facelift to the Colmbo Beira lake water front.  It is in a mission to reclaim the beira lake for general public. This mainly done by developing a linear park around the beira lake.  The linear par will be either six to twleve meters wide with paved walkways and green surroundings

These linear parks will be linked o number of Nodal Parks that would provide more room for recreation and access to main linear parks.

Most importantly the neve development will include water managment system and a porject to disconnect the wastewater collection in to the Beira lake. This would increase the water quality in the long term and hopefull rejuwante the underwater echo system of the beira lake.

Over the last few decades many buildings that surround the beira lake has taken steps to block the views of the lake and the front of those buildings are facing the opposite direction.  These improvments will provide oppertunity for many properties around the beira lake to re-design the main entrances and create better access to these buildings. We could see the value of the properties (such as inland revenue, Peoples bank HQ) improving as the surrounding environment become more accesible and pleasent experiance.

Additionally, the walkways will create more oppertunities for small vendors (who are moved out from the Fort and Pettah Area).  The space around the beirah lake will have number of oppertunities for small vendors (such as park side restourents, ice cream parlers etc,.)  and will provide better controlled, safe and environmentaly friendly atmosphere for business.

We invite our readers to share your thoughts and ideas about this new development around the beira lake.

UDA has identfied a five acre land next to Lotus Tower in the D.R Wijewardena Mawatha for potential Development.  The land which was previosly had the Colombo Fire Department is released for potential new developments.

The Urban Development Authority of Sri Lanka has announced number of projects around the Lotus Tower Development.  One of them is the Transwork Towers in Fort. This planned development will be utilsing the currently underutilised land opposit the Colombo Hilton.

Guidelines for development is posted in the [...]]]>

19 March 2012, with courtesy of www.uda.lk

The Urban Development Authority of Sri Lanka has announced number of projects around the Lotus Tower Development.  One of them is the Transwork Towers in Fort. This planned development will be utilsing the currently underutilised land opposit the Colombo Hilton.

Guidelines for development is posted in the UDA website that provides some of the basic requirments for the development. These include

• A minimum 30% of the total development to be dedicated to public
• No. of stories – unlimited
• Parking should be provided as per the floor area
• Soil Test report and Preliminary Traffic impact assessment reports are available
• No restrictions available for height of the building
• Suggested Development – Mixed Development

The land include historic tranworks building that currently house number of governement departments. Under the project the Transwork building is to be preserved.

This proposed building will be one of the new addition to the colombo skyline and will join many new buildings that would accompany Lotus Tower in Colombo Sky Line

If any of our readers have more information about this development that they willing to share please feel free to include them in the comments

Lanka Truth reportst that Old Postal Department Building complect is planned to be demolished to give way to the new lotus tower building.

Postal Give way to Lotus Tower: Lanaka Truth

We beleive its a very good idea. If I remeber correctly when they built the new postal department HQ in [...]]]>

06 March 2012

Lanka Truth reportst that Old Postal Department Building complect is planned to be demolished to give way to the new lotus tower building.

Postal Give way to Lotus Tower: Lanaka Truth

We beleive its a very good idea. If I remeber correctly when they built the new postal department HQ in the opposit side of the road this old shabby building was to be removed from this areas.  But these building somehow managed to survive for another 15 odd years.  We hope the government would look at number of old shabby old buildings in this areas and open up the space between the D.R wijewardena Mawatha and the Beirah lake. Such could change the appearance of the Colombo City Center dramatically.

We wonder whats happning with the old “GoDaSa” (Building Material Corp) warehouses in this area. Any inputs on the subject form our readers?

Lotus Tower  06 Mar 2012

Companies and Markets, a leading market research organisatoin has relesed its latest review on Sri Lankan Telecommunications Sector.  In the press release promoting the latest report, the companies and market is predicting mixed fortunes for the Sri Lankan Telecoms makrket…

“In this quarter’s update on the Sri Lankan [...]]]>

16 February 2012, CompaniesAnd Markets.com

Companies and Markets, a leading market research organisatoin has relesed its latest review on Sri Lankan Telecommunications Sector.  In the press release promoting the latest report, the companies and market is predicting mixed fortunes for the Sri Lankan Telecoms makrket…

“In this quarter’s update on the Sri Lankan telecoms market, we have extended our mobile, fixed-line, internet, broadband and ARPU forecasts to 2016. In light of new data published by the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka and the International Telecommunications Union, we have made several adjustments to our forecast scenarios.”

Says The report.

Further It eloborates ” Most notably, we have downgraded our expectation for the number of mobile subscribers between 2011 and 2016 on the back of slow growth in the first half of 2011. Similarly, the growth slowdown was experienced in the fixed-line sector. We now expect growth in Sri Lanka’s fixed-line market to decline in 2016 after a few more years of sluggish performance. The bright spot in the Sri Lankan telecoms sector is reserved for the internet, specifically the mobile broadband segment. There were 368,000 mobile broadband subscribers in the country at the end of June 2011, representing an impressive 206.5% increase y-o-y. We expect the momentum to remain robust as operators continue to roll out 3G and next generation mobile technology networks.”

It is specifically highlighting the fortunes of “Suntel” a troubled pioneer in private fixed line operators in the country. The report highlights..

“Debt-laden alternative fixed-line operator SunTel has been a target for several companies with the latest being Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT). A potential US$200mn deal was reported, which would be almost double the sum offered by India’s Mahanagar Telephone Nigam in 2010. We believe that SLT’s real attraction to SunTel is its large and comparatively robust enterprise customer base. In addition to basic voice services, SunTel offers hosted PABX, broadband internet, virtual mail server, web creation/hosting and managed security services for businesses. By buying SunTel, SLT could substantially increase its own enterprise services business.”

Full details of the report can be read at
http://www.companiesandmarkets.com/Market/Telecommunications/Market-Research/Sri-Lanka-Telecommunications-Report-Q1-2012/RPT1024347?aCode=b860166d-1022-455a-ba52-09304b8e5e40

Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT), the national telecommunications service provider, has launched a compelling corporate campaign under the ‘One Country, One Voice’ proposition to celebrate Sri Lanka’s 64th year of Independence. As the largest integrated telecommunications service provider of Sri Lanka, SLT’s mission is to deliver an innovative and exciting communications [...]]]>

DailyNews,  07 Feb 2010, Colombo

Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT), the national telecommunications service provider, has launched a compelling corporate campaign under the ‘One Country, One Voice’ proposition to celebrate Sri Lanka’s 64th year of Independence. As the largest integrated telecommunications service provider of Sri Lanka, SLT’s mission is to deliver an innovative and exciting communications experiences in line with the country’s vision of enabling all Sri Lankans with ICT.

Greg Young, CEO Sri Lanka Telecom said, “Our objective with this campaign is to educate and facilitate the people of Sri Lanka with the best possible telecommunications solutions. It will showcase all the additional services introduced by SLT such as Megaline, SLT Broadband and the overall customer centric services. We assure our customers across the island of our continued commitment towards service excellence.” The launch of the new campaign will coincide with the enhancements to existing products and services including the upgrade and revamp of SLT’s flagship Megaline with the introduction of value added services and latest high speed broadband offerings.

SLT Broadband will be introducing value additions with the introduction of new package schemes making the service more accessible to all Sri Lankans. SLT also pledges full support to enable corporate clients with new applications and improved facilities such as video conferencing.

As Sri Lanka gears up for a new phase of economic growth and mega infrastructure development, SLT, as the national telecommunications provider, is well positioned to help power that growth by facilitating telecommunications services.

Sri Lanka is well on its way to becoming a knowledge economy and SLT’s vast telecommunications capabilities play a pivotal role in deploying knowledge and information to one and all across the length and breadth of the country.

http://www.tops.lk/article39779-slt-launches-campaign-under-one-country-voice-banner.html

Sri Lanka’s telecommunication sector received a record US $ 69 million investment last year. The industry received this boost from five leading operators, Sri Lanka Telecom, Dialog Axiata, Etisalat, Bharathi Airtel and Mobitel. The biggest investment to the sector was made by Bharti Airtel Lanka, a subsidiary [...]]]>

Shirajiv Sirimane, Daily News, 30 Jan, 2012, Colombo

Sri Lanka’s telecommunication sector received a record US $ 69 million investment last year. The industry received this boost from five leading operators, Sri Lanka Telecom, Dialog Axiata, Etisalat, Bharathi Airtel and Mobitel. The biggest investment to the sector was made by Bharti Airtel Lanka, a subsidiary of Bharti Airtel, one of the world’s largest telecom service providers, which was the fifth player in the local mobile market. The company invested US $ 49.9 last year.

Malaysian based Dialog Axiata also invested heavily last year to the tune of US $31.8 million.

The proposed Nelum Pokuna telecom tower

An official from the company said that the company’s main focus last year was laying of the fiber optic cable.

This was mainly to increase its broad penetration and to give faster broadband, he said.

Dialog Axiata is also being recognised as the first company under its aegis to reach the Foreign Direct Investment milestone of USD one billion. Dialog Axiata surpassed the USD one billion cumulative investment milestone as at December 31, 2010 and at the completion of the rapid network expansion programme would reach a total investment of approximately USD 1.2 billion since inception.

Dialog also entered a Share Purchase Agreement (SPA) to acquire 100 percent of ordinary shares of the wireless fixed line operator Suntel Ltd from its current shareholders.

The certain execution of the acquisition will follow the meeting of conditions precedent to the transaction defined in the SPA. Meanwhile Etisalat too made heavy investments last year pumping US $ 30.8 million.

This was mainly to widen their coverage and for other infrastructure development.

The Dubai based firm acquired the Sri Lankan Tigo unit form Luxembourg listed Millicom for USD 207 million and since then have had invested aggressively with the main focus on the expansion of their 3G network.

The Sri Lanka Telecom’s Mobitel, last year focus too was on the laying of the fiber optic line in a bid to match competition and had invested US $ 16.7 million last year.

Sri Lanka’s telecommunication giant Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) plans to further invest Rs five billion in its mobile subsidiary, Mobitel.

In a disclosure at the Colombo Stock Exchange, the SLT announced that funds invested will be used by Mobitel for expansion in terms of coverage, capacity, and network modernization.

“This investment which will be on staggered basis is expected to be made within a period of six months,” the company said.

The Sri Lanka Telecom invested US $ 8.4 million last year.

In April 2011, BOI granted approval to phase II of Telecommunication, IP, Broadband, Infrastructure Expansion [TIBIX] project.

With this approval, SLT is entitled to import project related capital goods on duty free basis during the project implementation period of two years. SLT’s spend for the expansion project will exceed US$ 187 million.

Main article : http://www.dailynews.lk/2012/01/30/bus01.asp

Standing a massive 350 metres tall on the banks of the beautified Beira Lake, the Lotus tower would definitely make this paradise isle more stunning. This, the world’s nineteenth tallest building started its construction work last week. This multi-functional tele communication tower and Entertainment Centre is the brainchild [...]]]>

[22 Jan 2012, Colombo, Dhaneshi Yatawara-Sunday Observer]

Standing a massive 350 metres tall on the banks of the beautified Beira Lake, the Lotus tower would definitely make this paradise isle more stunning. This, the world’s nineteenth tallest building started its construction work last week. This multi-functional tele communication tower and Entertainment Centre is the brainchild of President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

This tower started its construction on an auspicious moment on Friday (January 20) by Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa and is built under the auspices of the Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (TRC) of Sri Lanka on a 3.06 hactares of land at the Beira Lake waterfront and alongside the D.R. Wijewardene Mawatha. “This will be an important landmark building being the tallest in South Asia when completed,” said Director General of TRC Anusha Palpita explaining about this striking city symbol under construction. This will be a free standing tower with a four storey high podium; a concrete tower shaft of moderate diameter, eight storeyed tower head and a steel framed antennae mast surmounted at the top.

Indigenous design

The lotus is a local design which is a key symbol deep rooted in the Sri Lankan culture. The concept and preliminary design is by local architects. The Faculty of Architecture of the University of Moratuwa provides the indigenous technical and architectural expertise. A team of consultants led by Emeritus Professor Nimal de Silva, Professor Samita Manawadu and Professor Chitra Weddikkara of the Faculty of Architecture, University of Moratuwa provides professional advice on this mega project.

The construction of the multi-functional Telecommunication Tower and an Entertainment Centre will cost approximately 104 million US dollars. The mega project is funded through the EXIM Bank of the People’s Republic of China.

The Secretary to the President Lalith Weeratunga, Director General of the Telecommunication Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka Anusha Palpita, Secretary to the Ministry of External Affairs Karunaratne Amunugama and several high ranking officials from relevant local institutes attended the signing ceremony.

A Chinese conglomerate comprising China National Electronics Import and Export Corporation (CEIEC) and Aerospace Long-March International Trade Co. Ltd will be completing the project on a turnkey basis.

“The tower will provide telecommunication facilities to at least 50 separate broadcasting and telecasting services which will surely bring a significant development to the electronic media field. And this tower also can facilitate 20 telecommunication service providers,” Palpita added. This tower will relay defence signals. The advantage would be that this facility provided to the telecommunication sector would help remove high powered TV and FM antennas placed on top of various buildings in the Colombo city.

Tower podium

The tower podium will house food courts, administrative offices, exhibition spaces, telecommunication museum and many other amenities.

Tower shaft

This will be a hollow concrete cylinder accommodating high-speed lifts and stairs for vertical circulations and ducts for various types of building services.

Tower head

This comprises eight floors. This accommodates an observation deck and a revolving restaurant! A Banquet Hall with space for 1,000 guests will also be in this section. Super luxury hotels with its star class accommodation facilities will be on two floors of this section.

The mast

Surmounted on the tower head, the mast will be the base for antennaes of TV, FM and telecommunication service providers. According to the TRC these will be installed at a height of between 250 to 350 meters from the ground level.

When completed, it will stand 26-meters above the Eiffel Tower and 17.4 meters higher than the Tokyo Tower. Lotus has been the symbol for honour and purity among Sri Lankans over centuries. It is the flower that bloom and brighten the world, standing on mud soil. It is the symbol of prosperity achieved through hardships like blooming out from mud into something beautiful.

Thus will be the end result of this world class lotus tower – the symbol of prosperity.

“We plan to provide a chance for high end shopping especially for foreign tourists. Yet that doesn’t mean this is only for a specific class. This will be a place where anyone can enjoy at leisure, spend time. Facilities will be available to suit their capacity. This will be a place for everyone,” Palpita said.

http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2012/01/22/fea05.asp

Hon. Basil Rajapaksa, M.P. and the Minister of Economic Affairs, laid the foundation stone at the site earmarked for the construction of the Colombo Lotus Tower, a 350 meter multi – functional Telecommunication Tower and Entertainment Centre, which is based on a concept of His Excellency the President Mahinda Rajapakse, [...]]]>

(TRC, 20 Jan 2012, Colombo)

Hon. Basil Rajapaksa, M.P. and the Minister of Economic Affairs, laid the foundation stone at the site earmarked for the construction of the Colombo Lotus Tower, a 350 meter multi – functional Telecommunication Tower and Entertainment Centre, which is based on a concept of His Excellency the President Mahinda Rajapakse, on January 20, 2012 in the presence of a distinguished gathering. It is being built under the auspices of the Telecommunication Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL) and will be the tallest Tower in South Asia when completed.

Among the distinguished participants at the event were Hon. A. H. M. Fowzie,  Senior Minister  Urban Affairs,Hon. Keheliya Rambukwella, M.P. and the Minister of Mass Media and Information, Hon. Pavithra Wanniarachchi,  Cabinet Minister    Technology and Research, Hon. Geethanjana Gunawardena, Deputy Minister Finance & Planning,    Mr. Lalith Weeratunga, Secretary to His Excellency the President and Chairman, TRCSL, Mr. Chen Xu, President, China National Electronics Import and Export Corporation (CEIEC), and Mr. Anusha Palpita, Director – General, TRCSL.

The site is located at the Beira Lake waterfront and alongside a part of the D R Wijewardene Mawatha, Colombo 10. A Chinese conglomerate comprising China National Electronics Import and Export Corporation (CEIEC) and Aerospace Long-March International Trade Co. Ltd (ALIT) will construct the Tower on a Turnkey Basis, using the concept and preliminary design drawn by local architects. The cost of the Project is US $ 104 .3 million.  It is expected to be completed within a period of 30 months.

http://www.trc.gov.lk/press-room/events/248-colombo-lotus-tower-minister-basil-rajapakse-lays-foundation-stone.html