{"id":165665,"date":"2016-07-23T12:22:16","date_gmt":"2016-07-23T06:52:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=165665"},"modified":"2016-07-24T01:11:40","modified_gmt":"2016-07-23T19:41:40","slug":"ravi-k-says-actual-cost-of-hambantota-cricket-stadium-is-rs-852-million-and-not-rs-4-5-billion-as-claimed-by-rajapaksa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/ravi-k-says-actual-cost-of-hambantota-cricket-stadium-is-rs-852-million-and-not-rs-4-5-billion-as-claimed-by-rajapaksa\/","title":{"rendered":"Ravi K Says Actual Cost Of Hambantota Cricket Stadium Is Rs. 852 Million, And Not Rs. 4.5 Billion As Claimed By Rajapaksa"},"content":{"rendered":"

Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake<\/span><\/a> has disclosed that the actual cost of the infamous Mahinda Rajapaksa International Cricket Stadium in Sooriyawewa, Hambantota is only Rs. 852 million, contrary to claims made by the former Mahinda Rajapaksa<\/span><\/a> led government which said that the stadium was built at a cost of Rs. 4.5 billion.<\/p>\n

\"Mahinda\"<\/a>Karunanayake said that the fresh valuation was received last week from valuation officers and they have estimated the total cost of the cricket stadium to be at Rs. 852 million.<\/p>\n

The fresh valuation was called amidst claims by the previous government which said that they had spent Rs. 4.5 billion to construct the stadium, and with the Chinese company now requesting for payment from the Sri Lankan government for carrying out the stadium construction work which was carried out during Rajapaksa\u2019s term.<\/p>\n

“There is absolutely no basis for the previous government’s claim that they spent Rs. 4.5 billion to construct this stadium,” Karunanayake added.<\/p>\n

The stadium in Hambantota has been termed a \u2018white elephant\u2019 due to the extreme costs for construction and maintenance and because very few cricket matches have been played in the stadium since it was opened in 2011.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":146163,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2186,1,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-165665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-featured-news","category-news","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"\nRavi K Says Actual Cost Of Hambantota Cricket Stadium Is Rs. 852 Million, And Not Rs. 4.5 Billion As Claimed By Rajapaksa - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/ravi-k-says-actual-cost-of-hambantota-cricket-stadium-is-rs-852-million-and-not-rs-4-5-billion-as-claimed-by-rajapaksa\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ravi K Says Actual Cost Of Hambantota Cricket Stadium Is Rs. 852 Million, And Not Rs. 4.5 Billion As Claimed By Rajapaksa - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[…]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/ravi-k-says-actual-cost-of-hambantota-cricket-stadium-is-rs-852-million-and-not-rs-4-5-billion-as-claimed-by-rajapaksa\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-07-23T06:52:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-07-23T19:41:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Ravi-Karunanayake.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1182\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1017\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/ravi-k-says-actual-cost-of-hambantota-cricket-stadium-is-rs-852-million-and-not-rs-4-5-billion-as-claimed-by-rajapaksa\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/ravi-k-says-actual-cost-of-hambantota-cricket-stadium-is-rs-852-million-and-not-rs-4-5-billion-as-claimed-by-rajapaksa\/\",\"name\":\"Ravi K Says Actual Cost Of Hambantota Cricket Stadium Is Rs. 852 Million, And Not Rs. 4.5 Billion As Claimed By Rajapaksa - Colombo Telegraph\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/ravi-k-says-actual-cost-of-hambantota-cricket-stadium-is-rs-852-million-and-not-rs-4-5-billion-as-claimed-by-rajapaksa\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/ravi-k-says-actual-cost-of-hambantota-cricket-stadium-is-rs-852-million-and-not-rs-4-5-billion-as-claimed-by-rajapaksa\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Ravi-Karunanayake.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-07-23T06:52:16+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-07-23T19:41:40+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/ravi-k-says-actual-cost-of-hambantota-cricket-stadium-is-rs-852-million-and-not-rs-4-5-billion-as-claimed-by-rajapaksa\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/ravi-k-says-actual-cost-of-hambantota-cricket-stadium-is-rs-852-million-and-not-rs-4-5-billion-as-claimed-by-rajapaksa\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/ravi-k-says-actual-cost-of-hambantota-cricket-stadium-is-rs-852-million-and-not-rs-4-5-billion-as-claimed-by-rajapaksa\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Ravi-Karunanayake.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Ravi-Karunanayake.jpg\",\"width\":1182,\"height\":1017,\"caption\":\"Ravi Karunanayake\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/ravi-k-says-actual-cost-of-hambantota-cricket-stadium-is-rs-852-million-and-not-rs-4-5-billion-as-claimed-by-rajapaksa\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Ravi K Says Actual Cost Of Hambantota Cricket Stadium Is Rs. 852 Million, And Not Rs. 4.5 Billion As Claimed By Rajapaksa\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\",\"name\":\"Colombo Telegraph\",\"description\":\"In journalism truth is a process\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3\",\"name\":\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/colombo_telegraph\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Ravi K Says Actual Cost Of Hambantota Cricket Stadium Is Rs. 852 Million, And Not Rs. 4.5 Billion As Claimed By Rajapaksa - Colombo Telegraph","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/ravi-k-says-actual-cost-of-hambantota-cricket-stadium-is-rs-852-million-and-not-rs-4-5-billion-as-claimed-by-rajapaksa\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Ravi K Says Actual Cost Of Hambantota Cricket Stadium Is Rs. 852 Million, And Not Rs. 4.5 Billion As Claimed By Rajapaksa - Colombo Telegraph","og_description":"[…]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/ravi-k-says-actual-cost-of-hambantota-cricket-stadium-is-rs-852-million-and-not-rs-4-5-billion-as-claimed-by-rajapaksa\/","og_site_name":"Colombo Telegraph","article_published_time":"2016-07-23T06:52:16+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-07-23T19:41:40+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1182,"height":1017,"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Ravi-Karunanayake.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/ravi-k-says-actual-cost-of-hambantota-cricket-stadium-is-rs-852-million-and-not-rs-4-5-billion-as-claimed-by-rajapaksa\/","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/ravi-k-says-actual-cost-of-hambantota-cricket-stadium-is-rs-852-million-and-not-rs-4-5-billion-as-claimed-by-rajapaksa\/","name":"Ravi K Says Actual Cost Of Hambantota Cricket Stadium Is Rs. 852 Million, And Not Rs. 4.5 Billion As Claimed By Rajapaksa - Colombo Telegraph","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/ravi-k-says-actual-cost-of-hambantota-cricket-stadium-is-rs-852-million-and-not-rs-4-5-billion-as-claimed-by-rajapaksa\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/ravi-k-says-actual-cost-of-hambantota-cricket-stadium-is-rs-852-million-and-not-rs-4-5-billion-as-claimed-by-rajapaksa\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Ravi-Karunanayake.jpg","datePublished":"2016-07-23T06:52:16+00:00","dateModified":"2016-07-23T19:41:40+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/ravi-k-says-actual-cost-of-hambantota-cricket-stadium-is-rs-852-million-and-not-rs-4-5-billion-as-claimed-by-rajapaksa\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/ravi-k-says-actual-cost-of-hambantota-cricket-stadium-is-rs-852-million-and-not-rs-4-5-billion-as-claimed-by-rajapaksa\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/ravi-k-says-actual-cost-of-hambantota-cricket-stadium-is-rs-852-million-and-not-rs-4-5-billion-as-claimed-by-rajapaksa\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Ravi-Karunanayake.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Ravi-Karunanayake.jpg","width":1182,"height":1017,"caption":"Ravi Karunanayake"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/ravi-k-says-actual-cost-of-hambantota-cricket-stadium-is-rs-852-million-and-not-rs-4-5-billion-as-claimed-by-rajapaksa\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Ravi K Says Actual Cost Of Hambantota Cricket Stadium Is Rs. 852 Million, And Not Rs. 4.5 Billion As Claimed By Rajapaksa"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/","name":"Colombo Telegraph","description":"In journalism truth is a process","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3","name":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH"},"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/colombo_telegraph\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Ravi-Karunanayake.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165665"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165665\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":165675,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165665\/revisions\/165675"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}