The eighth miracle of the beach!
The Director General of Coastal Conservation has received an order from the President to demolish the unauthorized constructions on the Wellawatte beach.
Although the order was received firmly, when the officials of the Moratuwa office went to implement it, the same thing happened to the fox that got entangled in a bamboo fence.
When you look at the amount of permits that have been issued 'under the table' and irregularly for many years, the office's documents have become not just a pile of paper, but a script of an absurd drama that cannot be solved.
What is written on the paper is one thing. What is built on the beach is another. Since no follow-up has been done after the issuance of permits, the businessmen have expanded the construction to a point where they are almost taxing the sea.
Now what should be demolished? What should be saved? According to internal sources, preparing a document has been a more difficult task than groping in the dark. The President said that 26 illegal constructions had been identified. Now, it has not been 26 but 87.
The Director General, Turni Pradeep Kumara, has a separate mission behind this crisis. He is working hard to clear the various allegations and black spots leveled against him and to 'show his work' before the President.
However, if an operation against illegal constructions in such a chaotic setting, even though the foundation is rotten, is successful, it will undoubtedly go down in history as the 'eighth miracle on the coast'.
On September 10, 2026, News 1st reported that 87 unauthorized constructions have been identified along the coastline from Bambalapitiya Marine Drive to Wellawatte Wasala Canal. The Minister of Environment has said that steps will be taken to remove them this month. It has also been stated that the responsibility for protecting this area has been assigned to the Department of Coastal Conservation and Coastal Resources Management.
It has now been confirmed that a legal problem has already arisen in the removal of constructions on the Wellawatte beach.
A very important new development has now occurred. That is, the court has temporarily stopped the removal of one restaurant.
The Court of Appeal has granted an interim order until September 21, 2026, suspending the implementation of the notice issued by the Director General of Coastal Conservation to demolish a restaurant named Beach Wadiya Private Limited on Wellawatte beach on September 9, 2026.
This is a very important point. Because it shows that there is no situation where “every construction that is found to be illegal can be demolished without any legal process”.
The company in question has filed a writ petition in the Court of Appeal against the demolition notice, and the legal side has stated that the petition has presented facts that the restaurant is not an illegal construction.
However, the court has not yet finally ruled that this restaurant is legal. At present, there is only an interim order that temporarily prevented the implementation of the demolition order.
The legal situation regarding the presence of licenses.....
There is another important point here.
According to the official website of the Coastal Conservation Department, a permit issued by the Director/Director General under Section 14 of the Coast Conservation Act No. 57 of 1981 is generally required to carry out a development activity in the coastal zone.
The Coastal Zone and Coastal Resource Management Plan 2024–2029 also states that permission from the Coastal Conservation Authority is required for various constructions such as houses, commercial buildings, tourist facilities, etc.
Accordingly, the mere fact that a place has a permit is not a sufficient question. What should be checked is,
Which agency issued the permit?
Is it a Coastal Conservation permit? What is the date of issue? For what construction?
What are the conditions of the permit? Has the construction been carried out in accordance with the approved plan?
Have any additional parts been added later?
Is the permit still valid? Has the coastal setback limit been violated?
From there, another serious question arises....
What if a state institution has granted a permit, but that permit was granted in violation of the law?
Then the question is not only about the person who built it.
“Who granted the permit?”
It should also be investigated.
For example, if an official has granted permission to a place that is in violation of the Coastal Conservation Act, the possibility of later revoking that permission and the responsibility for the process that issued it are issues that should be investigated separately.
Therefore, in addition to the statement that “unauthorized constructions will be demolished”, the questions “Who allowed those unauthorized constructions to exist for many years? Who granted the permits? Who did not conduct inspections?” should also be asked.
The government has sought legal advice...
The Minister of Environment had stated on September 5 that legal advice had been obtained from the Attorney General for the process of removing unauthorized constructions on the Colombo District coastline.
Therefore, the current situation does not seem to be a simple “demolition operation” but a process involving legal permissions, removal powers, judicial proceedings and previous decisions of state officials.
It is being reported that corrupt officials of the Coastal Conservation and Coastal Resources Management Department, who helped in the unauthorized constructions by accepting bribes or for other gains, are currently operating on the “I am the one” theory.
It is clear that the current engineer of the Moratuwa Regional Office of the Coastal Conservation and Coastal Resources Management Department and its Assistant Director, have provided assistance to the unauthorized constructions in the coastal belt, especially from Wellawatte to Kalutara.
Therefore, the question of “Who issued the permits?” should become a very important investigative question in this case.
Jayalathge Sunil Gamini ✍️
