India’s plan to buy a property to move its cultural centre in Colombo is in limbo, after New Delhi lost out to a Chinese state-owned company in the race to buy a prime plot in the Sri Lankan capital – allegedly due to delay by the island nation’s government in issuing necessary clearances.
New Delhi last month conveyed its displeasure to the Sri Lankan government after the plot it was planning to buy in Colombo to set up the Indian Cultural Centre was sold to a subsidiary of Avic International Holding Corporation – a state-owned conglomerate of China.
“The Government of Sri Lanka has offered to assist the High Commission of India in acquiring a government property to locate the Indian Cultural Centre in Colombo,” Minister of State for External Affairs, Preneet Kaur, informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply to a question last week.
It is believed it might still take long to shift the cultural centre to a property that would be owned by the Government of India.
The Indian Cultural Centre in Colombo moved to a new rented accommodation in 2010. Indian High Commission in Colombo had concluded negotiations with M/s Shaw Wallace & Hedges PLC to buy a plot of land owned by the private company at Kollupitiya locality of Colombo. It then sought necessary clearances from the Ministry of External Affairs of the Sri Lankan Government to buy the plot.
But as the Sri Lankan Government allegedly delayed the approval for purchase of the property, the M/s Shaw Wallace & Hedges PLC struck a deal with a subsidiary of the Avic International Holding Corporation – the new incarnation of the Chinese defence aviation company, China National Aero Technology Import and Export Corporation or CATIC, which was restructured and renamed in 2008.
