Managing Housing and Infrastructure Needs for a Fully-fledged Involuntary Resettlement: The Case of Central Expressway in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Housing with infrastructure needs are basics in resettlement projects having a public stake. As part of a study exploring how these needs can be effectively addressed, this paper identifies the gaps in managing these infrastructure needs in one of the highway construction projects in Sri Lanka namely Central Expressway, Phase 1. This case study provides a perspective in exploring the issues encountered by the affected people using grounded theory. The paper presents the recommendations to minimize such gaps. Data was collected through unstructured interviews comprising both the beneficiaries and the government officials, reducing opinion bias. Gaps identified were ad-hoc erection of houses, lack of infrastructure facilities, security, safety and health issues, delay and insufficiency of compensation and inefficiency in administrative functions and information asymmetry. Some kind of interventionist approach is inevitable to enhance beneficiary participation and knowledge sharing in order to minimise these gaps, the majority of which has been outweighed by the perceived land value. The findings of this research will help detect the existing gaps in involuntary resettlement and institutional inefficiencies that hamper the progress of resettlement.