Construction of the proposed international cricket stadium at Mandaitivu in Jaffna is to restart, Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) said, after the approvals and environmental reports that had held the project up were finally obtained.
SLC said all necessary approvals, clearances and certificates had been secured and that the contract-awarding process for the remaining construction work was complete, with work scheduled to resume next week, the Daily Mirror reported.
Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports Sunil Kumara Gamage inspected the site on Sunday, accompanied by MP K. Ilankumaran. Gamage said the project had been delayed by difficulties in securing several environmental reports required for construction, that all documents had now been obtained and preliminary work completed, and that the stadium was expected to be finished within a year, Hiru News reported.
The two filings differ on timing. SLC’s account puts the restart at next week; the minister’s own announcement, made at the site, put it at “within the next few weeks.”
The flooding objection
The minister also examined claims by what the Daily Mirror described as “certain parties” that the site floods during the rainy season. SLC said the inspection found those claims to be baseless.
Those objections are a matter of record and are specific. In a Sunday Times report of 1 March 2026, environmental lawyer Jagath Gunawardana said Mandaitivu sits roughly one to five metres above sea level and floods frequently during the monsoon, lies beside a Mangrove Reserved Forest, and that Jaffna’s lack of perennial rivers would strain freshwater supplies. Sajeewa Chamikara of the Movement for Land and Agricultural Reform cited migratory wader habitat and fish, crab and shrimp breeding grounds; Wildlife and Nature Protection Society president Graham Marshall warned of carbon release from disturbing carbon-rich soils. Neither current filing names the objectors or says which claim the inspection tested.
Not the first restart
This is at least the second time work at Mandaitivu has been reported as resuming. SLC said in a statement carried by the Daily FT on 31 December 2025 that construction had been halted by Cyclone Ditwah — disrupting a trial game set for 14 January 2026 — and had then restarted, with the trial match pushed to after the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup. That statement described a 48-acre ground with 10 centre wickets inside a 138-acre sports city.
Not reported
Neither filing gives the contractor, the contract value, a revised trial-match date, or the cost of the delay. Neither says which environmental agency issued the outstanding reports or when they were granted.