Who owns controversial property opposite WTC?

The Urban Development Authority (UDA) says that the property at Echelon Square in Colombo Fort, opposite the World Trade Center, which sparked controversy recently over an ownership dispute, does not belong to the Capital Maharaja Organisation Limited.

The UDA Chairman Ranjith Fernanado stated that ownership of the property in question had caused a controversy, however, pointed out that the UDA has not accepted that the property belongs to the private company.

Rejecting reports that the UDA has conceded that the property belongs the Capital Maharaja Organisation, he stated that the documents pertaining to the property do not verify that ownership is with the concerned company.

The Urban Development Authority has accepted that a property at Echelon Square in the Colombo Fort, opposite the World Trade Centre belongs to the Capital Maharaja Organisation Limited.

While the matter of the ownership of the land was inquired into at the Fort Police Station today, Attorney-at-Law U.R. De Silva noted that officials representing the Urban Development Authority had accepted that the plot of land belongs to the Capital Maharaja Organisation Limited.

Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Capital Maharaja Organisation Limited has reiterated that the group will always acts within the framework of the law.

On Saturday it was reported that a group of people from a private company had attempted to forcible fence a government property in front of the World Trade Center (WTC) in Colombo.

The group had claimed that the property is owned by the private company, however the Urban Development Authority (UDA) had said the property, located near the Dutch Hospital Shopping Precinct, belongs to the UDA.

The company in question had temporarily halted the setting up of the fence while both parties were summoned to the police for an investigation into the dispute which was carried out under an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP).