North and East Development

Achieving the primary ambition of the nation, Northern and Eastern provinces were completely liberated from terrorists and resettlement in the Eastern Province was successfully completed by resettling 206,000 internally displaced persons in their own places. The damaged social and economic infrastructure in the Eastern Province was rehabilitated, after removing all land mines, at a cost of over Rs.120 billion under the Negenahira Navodaya programme. A number of large bridges in the East including Kinniya, Sri Lanka’s longest bridge, and Arugambay Bridge were opened to the public. They cost more than Rs. 7 billion. Under the Negenahira Navodaya programme, electricity had been given to 171,000 housing units under 665 electricity schemes at a cost of Rs. 1,534 million by 2008. In addition, 276,000 people benefited through the water supply schemes implemented in the Eastern province with an investment of Rs. 45 billion. At the end of 2008, 3007 km of roads in the Eastern province were constructed and rehabilitated at a cost of Rs. 30 billion.

23,979 houses in the Eastern province and 29,420 houses in the Northern province that were destroyed by terrorism were constructed or rehabilitated spending Rs. 11.5 billion. Facilitating the cultivation of 31,358 hectares in North and East, Karawahula, Rugam, Allai, Giants Tank and Iranamadu tanks were rehabilitated and developed under 5 irrigation schemes. With the aim of ensuring sustainable livelihoods for the people in the North and East, Rs.2401 million was spent on community and infrastructure development covering 461 Grama Niladhari Divisions in 38 Divisional Secretariat Divisions. 250 buses worth Rs.573 million were assigned to those areas and 206 buses were repaired, facilitating transport in the region.

119,000 internally displaced persons out of around 280,000 who were staying in the welfare villages and camps after liberation from the terrorists were resettled and steps have been taken to expedite de-mining in order to speed up the resettlement process in the North, by importing Rs. 9 billion worth of automatic demining machines. Under the Uturu Wasanthaya initiative, 358 machines worth Rs. 3050 million required for infrastructure development were imported and assigned for development work in the North. A housing scheme that consists of 7885 housing units was completed with an investment of Rs. 3 billion in the Puttalam District for the resettlement of displaced persons. Under the Uturu Wasanthaya programme, a mega development process has been initiated for constructing national highways and a railway network, regional and rural roads, electricity, water supply, irrigation, fishery harbours, schools, hospitals, marketing centres, government institutions and police stations covering all districts in the Northern Province.

The vegetable harvest has increased from 80,175 metric tons to 142,779 metric tons by increasing the land area cultivated in the Northern and Eastern Provinces. This has created a new hope for life for the people in those areas. Milk production has increased from 6.9 million liters in 2006 to 15.8 million liters in 2009 and the production of yoghurt and ghee was doubled during this period.