The Cabinet of Ministers has approved a USD 200 million Asian Development Bank-funded project to rebuild highways, irrigation systems and livelihoods devastated by Cyclone Ditwah, marking the largest single project-tied recovery package since the November 2025 disaster.
The “Post Ditwah Cyclone Renovation and Livelihood Assistance Project” will be funded with USD 100 million from the ADB’s permanent general capital resources and a further USD 100 million from concessionary general capital resources, the government said in a Cabinet briefing on Tuesday. President Anura Kumara Dissanayake submitted the resolution in his capacity as Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development.
The project covers three components: renovation of cyclone-damaged highways infrastructure, reconstruction of destroyed irrigation systems, and restoration of livelihoods together with housing grants for affected families. No timeline for disbursement was disclosed.
The fresh package follows a post-disaster needs assessment that estimated total damages from Ditwah at approximately USD 2.1 billion and economic losses at USD 1.4 billion, putting the total restoration requirement at around USD 3.5 billion. Ditwah, which struck Sri Lanka in November 2025, killed 646 people, affected 2.2 million residents and inflicted heavy damage on highways, railway tracks, irrigation systems and household economies.
The Manila-based lender last week deployed a USD 4 billion crisis-response package across 14 affected countries including Sri Lanka, with USD 3 billion in budget-support style policy lending and USD 1 billion in trade finance for energy and food imports.
Tuesday’s project-tied financing is separate from a supplementary USD 100 million ADB policy-based loan that Cabinet also approved today under the lender’s general support window for the Trade, Investment and Industries Development Programme, and from earlier project loans such as the USD 250 million water and sanitation policy-based loan cleared in May.
The same Cabinet meeting also approved additional funding to restore places of worship damaged by Ditwah, underscoring the breadth of the recovery push more than seven months after the cyclone.
