It will take another two three months (to start).”

“We have informed them to start the construction they have also some issues. “There are some legal issues from our side once they paid the necessary fees for the land,” Yapa said. He declined to say exactly what the legal matter is. “We have something to be sorted out from our legal side,” Investment Promotion Minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena told Reuters in a telephone interview. But terms of the approval were altered in the face of strong opposition from some Buddhist leaders and political parties, and construction on the project has yet to start. Packer, one of Australia’s richest men, first obtained Sri Lanka cabinet approval for the project nearly a year ago. The project was slated to be completed by 2015, but a change in government led to the cancellation of all three casino licenses awarded by the previous administration- among them, that of the Crown Resorts project.Australian gambling tycoon James Packer’s Crown Ltd is facing months of new delays in building a planned $400 million Sri Lanka hotel and casino resort due to unspecified legal issues, a government minister said on Wednesday. The project was criticized by civil society groups (on the grounds of being contrary to the country's conservative principles), and by opposition parties, which alleged that the tax incentives given to the project were disproportionate and an unfair burden to the taxpayer.

This was a joint partnership between Ravi Wijeratne (head of the Rank Holdings group) and Crown Limited, who each held a 45% stake. Ĭrown Sri Lanka was one of three integrated resorts planned in Sri Lanka, located in the capital city Colombo. In this context, it intended to encourage the growth of a gambling industry, hoping to divert Indian and Chinese travelers from more established centers such as Singapore or Macau. In the post-war period, the Sri Lankan government under Mahinda Rajapaksa actively pursued new ventures to attract tourism and boost the country's economy, intending to take advantage of the island's close proximity to India.

It was expected to cost $450 million and consist of two 36 floor buildings History Beira Lake, Slave Island, Colombo, Sri LankaĬrown Sri Lanka was a proposed casino and resort on the banks of the Beira Lake in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Crown casino colombo sri lanka