Nearly two years after the National People’s Power took office, the government is still working out what to do with around 30 state bungalows once occupied by Cabinet ministers, the Daily Mirror reports.
The NPP pledged in the run-up to the presidential election of 21 September 2024 not to use the colonial-era bungalows as official residences for its ministers. The properties, along with residences vacated by former presidents under the Presidents’ Entitlements (Repeal) Act, passed to the Ministry of Public Administration, Provincial Councils and Local Government, the Daily Mirror reported.
The ministry has since handed them to the Presidential Secretariat, which is running the process of identifying productive uses.
What is proposed
Public Administration Minister Chandana Abeyratne told the paper one of the bungalows would be converted into a courthouse.
“The Presidential Secretariat has taken charge of these houses. There have been requests from foreign missions to use some of them, while there are also proposals for commercial activities. The Presidential Secretariat is carrying out the necessary work in this regard,” he said.
No timeline was given for a decision, and the minister did not say how many of the roughly 30 properties have proposals attached, which foreign missions have applied, or whether any lease or transfer has been completed.
A separate tender is already running
The delay contrasts with a parallel process the Finance Ministry has moved faster on. Earlier this month the ministry called for proposals to develop state-owned bungalows in Colombo 5 under 30-year commercial leases, pitching them as boutique hotels, cafes and restaurants, with a submission deadline of 25 August.
That tender covers a different, smaller set of properties on Stanmore Crescent, Paget Road and Skelton Road, held under a different ministry. The roughly 30 ministerial bungalows described on Friday are not part of it, and remain without an announced disposal route.
The Daily Mirror described the report as its own reporting. No other verified Sri Lankan newsroom had published an equivalent account as of Friday morning.
