The National Dangerous Drugs Control Board (NDDCB) will establish four new state-run drug rehabilitation centres and issue licences for eight additional private treatment facilities, in the latest expansion of the country’s addiction treatment network.
Director General K.K.S. Kothalawala said the new public centres will be opened in Kalpitiya, Kurunegala, Akuressa and Batticaloa. The geographic spread covers a Puttalam-coast hub, a North-Western Province hub at the country’s interior crossroads, a deep-South site in Matara district, and an Eastern Province site at Batticaloa, addressing capacity gaps in regions where existing centres have been over-subscribed.
The eight new private licences are intended to bring more regulated facilities into the rehabilitation system after years in which much of the unlicensed treatment landscape operated outside any oversight regime. The NDDCB has not yet published the criteria or fee structure for the new private licences.
The announcement comes as the government continues its “Rata Ekata” — Country Together — anti-narcotics drive, which has recorded more than 186,000 drug-related arrests since its launch and seized over ten tonnes of narcotics through the Kandy district progress review window. Rehabilitation capacity has lagged enforcement throughout the campaign, with NDDCB facilities running at or near full capacity at multiple sites.
Kothalawala did not give a timeline for when the new centres would be operational or specify the bed capacity for each site.
