By Roy Denish
A tourism promise has erupted into an environmental storm as residents allege a luxury hotel project was secretly transformed into a massive cement factory, triggering protests over public health, transparency, and ecological damage.
Deception by state authorities sits at the center of a growing environmental scandal in Katunayake, where what was promised to be a luxury tourist hotel has instead transformed into a massive, five-story cement factory.
Local residents in the commercial and tourism hub took to the streets near the 18th Mile Post junction on Sunday, launching a fierce protest against a project they claim was fast-tracked through secret permit modifications and a complete lack of transparency.
Official documents reveal a bureaucratic paper trail that began on Dec. 10, 2020, when the Central Environmental Authority approved a plan for a single-story tourist hotel covering 3,857 square meters on a six-acre plot. The illusion of a tourism development was maintained until Dec. 25, 2025, when the Urban Development Authority issued a final development permit.
However, protesters allege that behind closed doors, the approved blueprints were quietly altered. The project ballooned into a 12,925-square-meter industrial cement manufacturing and packaging plant, completely bypassing public scrutiny and environmental impact assessments.
The sprawling construction site now extends from the main Colombo-Katunayake road directly to the edge of the Negombo Lagoon, raising immediate alarms over hazardous cement dust and ecological degradation. Community leaders warn the plant poses a direct health and environmental threat to nearby international schools, tourist hotels, the Colombo-Katunayake Expressway, and the international airport.
Furthermore, the industrial runoff and air pollution threaten to devastate the fragile Negombo Lagoon fishing community, the tourist boat industry in the Muthurajawela wetlands, and the ecologically sensitive Liyanagemulla mangrove forests, which are legally protected under a special government gazette. The site also borders densely populated residential zones housing female employees from the Katunayake Free Trade Zone.
Demonstrators noted that construction is moving forward at an aggressive pace in open violation of standard Urban Development Authority conditions. Fueling local outrage is the fact that developers have failed to post any project information boards at the site, leaving the public entirely in the dark about who owns the factory or how it was allowed to jeopardize the region’s public health and economy.
