Nimesh Herath
The biggest private sector development project in Jaffna, the Rs. 2.5 billion international university complex is on track and would be opened early next year, said Chairman Urban Development Authority (UDA), Nimesh Hearth.
He said that all approvals for the project have been obtained and the Canadian investor MagickWoods Group of Canada and Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT) are now moving ahead.
According to the investment proposal submitted by the investor, the total investment is USD 50 million and of that USD 25 million will be foreign direct investment.
Herath said that while focusing on project development in the South, the UDA has also focused on bringing investments to the North as well.
“We are also looking at putting to good use abandoned Sate assets and it is under this initiative that they identified a virtually abandoned President’s House built in Jaffna several years ago, to use for this project.
He said that this project will be a game changer for the Northern youth as it will provide international standard education for them via the proposed University.
“The aim of the project is to build a future-ready university and Information Technology (IT) park in Kankesanthurai,” he said.
Herath said that this project will also give a positive signal to the Tamil Diaspora that the North is open for investments.”
