A 16-storey Heart Treatment Centre will be built within the Sri Lanka National Hospital in Colombo at a cost of Rs. 12,000 million, Health Minister Nalinda Jayatissa announced on Sunday, saying construction will begin this year and is expected to be completed within three years.
Jayatissa made the disclosure at the National Hospital as Specialist Dr. M.K. Sampath Indika Kumara assumed duties as the institution’s Deputy Director General. The minister said responsibility for bringing the centre from construction to operation would be entrusted to the new hospital director as a special duty, Newswire reported.
A separate Stroke Unit is also under consideration, the minister said, with discussions held on the possibility of establishing the facility within the hospital premises.
Jayatissa framed the announcement as part of a wider development trajectory for the country’s flagship public hospital. “The National Hospital of Sri Lanka should become the foremost hospital in Asia by further developing its existing facilities,” he said, “and a capable leader has now been appointed to provide leadership for this goal.”
The announcement is the second major National Hospital infrastructure commitment this month, alongside the Rs. 501 million Biomedical Engineering Centre that opens on June 16 with Korean foundation funding. Cardiac services have historically been concentrated at the National Hospital’s existing units and at the Kandy Heart Unit; the 16-storey vertical build would consolidate advanced services on the Colombo campus.
The cost — Rs. 12 billion — places the heart centre among the larger single-site state healthcare infrastructure commitments since the post-2022 recovery, though the announcement did not specify the financing source or contractor arrangements.
