Healthcare projects worth billions resume across Sri Lanka as 25 stalled hospital and health sector developments are pushed toward completion.
The healthcare projects halted under previous governments are being restarted as the Ministry of Health and Mass Media moves to complete 25 major developments across Sri Lanka’s hospital and health sector network.
The programme is aimed at ensuring a more efficient and higher-quality healthcare service for the people, after several large-scale projects that had begun at hospitals and other health institutions across the island were abandoned midway.
This broad and fast-moving work programme is being carried out under the full guidance and instructions of Minister of Health and Mass Media Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa.
Accordingly, the programme covers 25 major development projects that were started in 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2024, but later came to a halt for various reasons.
Under the initiative, Rs. 16,000 million was allocated from the 2025 budget provisions to complete work on 25 essential large-scale development projects, including the main building of the Ministry of Health. The allocation for 2026 is Rs. 19,000 million, while Rs. 38,000 million is planned to be allocated in 2027.
The programme includes buildings and other constructions connected to improving child and maternal health, expanding cancer treatment services, strengthening cardiac and thalassaemia patient care, completing the main office of the Ministry of Health and national centres, improving emergency and accident care services, providing staff quarters for health workers, and introducing environmentally friendly waste management systems.
Under this programme, construction of the Maternity and Ward Complex at De Soysa Hospital for Women, which began in 2019, has now been completed with modern facilities. A sum of Rs. 389 million was allocated for this project.
In addition, construction of the 12-storey “Little Heart Centre” at the Lady Ridgeway Hospital for Children, which began in 2017, has now reached its final stages. The estimated allocation for this project is Rs. 6,218 million.
The 8-storey building under Phase 2 of the Kandy National Cancer Treatment Unit, which began in 2016 and was later abandoned midway, has now been completed with an allocation of Rs. 400 million from this year’s budget.
Meanwhile, construction of the ten-storey building and six-storey cancer unit at the Badulla Teaching Hospital is currently underway. The present government has allocated Rs. 1,000 million for these constructions in 2026.
Construction work on the Accident and Emergency Treatment Unit Stage II at the Jaffna Teaching Hospital, the Surgical Medical Unit at the Karapitiya Teaching Hospital, the Renal Care Units at Batticaloa and Hambantota, and the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit at the Kandy National Hospital has now reached its final stages.
A total of Rs. 1,750 million has been allocated for these projects for the year 2026.
The main office building of the Ministry of Health, which was started in 2014 and later stalled midway, is now nearing completion. The allocation for this project from the 2026 budget is Rs. 3,000 million.
Construction of the diagnostic unit of the National Stroke Centre at Mulleriyawa is also progressing, along with Outpatient Department, Accident and Emergency units at Kegalle, Trincomalee, Ampara, Halawatha, and Kandy hospitals.
These development activities are moving forward successfully, with Rs. 1,750 million allocated for their completion.
The installation and commissioning of 15 incinerators for infectious waste disposal within the country’s hospital system is also in its final stages and is expected to be completed before the end of this year.
A joint project between the Government of Sri Lanka and JICA is currently being implemented successfully for this purpose.
In addition, construction work on the Cardiac Care Complex at Ratnapura Hospital, the 4-storey Nursing Study and Administration Building at Kalutara, the Academic and Administration Building at the Anuradhapura Nursing School together with nursing quarters, and the 6-storey hostel building at the Sri Jayewardenepura Nursing Faculty is progressing successfully.
Apart from these projects, more than Rs. 8,800 million has been allocated for the modernization and rehabilitation of hospital infrastructure, and work connected to those improvements has also commenced.
Minister Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa has already instructed the relevant authorities to accelerate the completion of all these constructions and bring them into public service as soon as possible.
