The government still has hopes on the mixed hotel projects of ‘Lake Leisure Holdings’ in Colombo which is being handled together by 40 year old Australian investor James Douglas Packer and prominent Sri Lankan businessman Ravi Wijeratne, said Investment Promotions Minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardene.

Minister Yapa Abeywardene added that they have already paid around 20 percent of the value of the land to be used for this project.

While speaking to adaderanabiz.lk the Investment Promotions Minister said, “The government has not abandoned this project. A new agreement has to be entered into for this project. We expect to sign an agreement in the near future which would be in accordance with the amended gazette notifications.”

“The parties representing James Packer and Ravi Wijeratne have already paid around 20 percent value of the four acre extent of land to be leased out by the government for this project.”

The land earmarked for this project is opposite Lake House in Colombo facing the Beira Lake and the mixed hotel project has been planned on this land with an investment of around USD 400 million.

While massive protests arose claiming that this project by prominent Sri Lankan businessman Ravi Wijeratne together with James Packer was planning to establish casinos and gambling centres, the government later got the particular gazette notification passed in Parliament without clearly stating the word casino.

Hence, the Sri Lanka Board of Investment is preparing to cancel the earlier agreements and sign new agreements for the three mixed development projects involving James Packer, Dhammika Perera and John Keells group.

At an earlier instance, while commenting on this issue Deputy Minister for Investment Promotions Faizer Musthapha said that the new agreement for these three projects would be signed with the relevant parties while including only the concessions approved by Parliament recently.