Sri Lanka’s troubled Kalpitiya beach resort’s new plan on track
Sep 02, 2015 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s troubled Kalpitiya Beach Resort, a subsidiary of Citrus Leisure PLC which blamed the former government for not developing Kalpitiya to build their hotel from the money they raised through an Initial public offering says the new plan for the construction of a Ayurveda spa resort is on track.
“Plans are well on the way to complete this project by 2017,” Prema Cooray, Chairman of Kalpitiya beach resort told shareholders in its Annual Report.
“Furthermore, it is encouraging to see several positive announcements made by the current administration with regard to the development of the proposed tourism zone in Kalpitiya,”
“The long delay in the implementation of government plans had delayed the original plans for Citrus Kalpitiya. Ayuveda tourism is niche product which is not as dependent on the destination development, nevertheless a fresh focus on Kalpitiya by the new government augurs well for Citrus.”
In 2011, Kalpitiya Beach Resort raised 283.5 million rupees from an initial public offering stating that the funds will be utilized partly to finance a construction of a resort hotel in Kalpitiya and vowed to start commercial operations early this year.
However the company failed to construct a hotel in the property and blamed the former government saying that the hotel project was held back due to past regimes’ incompetency to attract occupancy and build tourism infrastructure in Kalpitiya.
In June 2015 Citrus Kalpitiya received shareholder approval to develop a 60 room Ayurveda spa resort in the same land after the Security Exchange Commission raised concerns on the transparency of funds and asked the company to come up with proper future plans.
Citrus Kalpitiya owns a freehold land of 6,932 perch.
