(Dis)connecting Colombo: Situating the Megapolis in Postwar Sri Lanka

Abstract

Sri Lanka is in the midst of a post-war infrastructure boom, with new investment directed into roads, ports and airports as part of an uneven and contested development process.Taking the transformations unfolding in Colombo as our point of departure, we examine how the vision of Megapolis has animated debates on the geographies of connectivity.The post-war Sri Lankan political landscape initially envisioned political integration, which was to be delivered through the expansion of national road networks. The political priorities in the past decade reoriented away from integrating the nation to the strategic positioning of Colombo as a financial trading hub for South Asia. Focusing on Colombo's flagship Port City project, we problematise these models of development by foregrounding counter-narratives that speak to concerns around debt, enclosure, persistent ethnic tensions, and the degradation of coastal ecosystems.

Tracing the Links between Infrastructure‐Led Development, Urban Transformation, and Inequality in China’s Belt and Road Initiative

“…Importantly, the Port City does not reflect only Chinese inspirations but has been a key part of controversial urban regeneration plans from Sri Lanka’s governments following the end of the 26‐year civil war (in 2009) and aiming at transforming Sri Lanka to a liberalised economy open to foreign investors. These included the Western Region Megapolis and the City Beautification Program (Ruwanpura et al 2020) whose implementation required military’s involvement and entailed mass evictions of the urban poor (Radicati 2020), demolitions (Colombo Gazette 2015; Van Dort 2016) and forceful slum clearance continuing Sri Lanka’s long history of displacements of low‐income, multi‐ethnic and multi‐religious urban communities from city centres.…”