Whose Right of Way?

Development Induced Displacement (DID) and Resettlement are not new phenomenon in Sri Lanka. Pockets of population have been relocated from colonial times owing to political decisions and large-scale anchor projects that sought to diversify and resite agricultural production from few concentrated areas. This research looks at development-induced displacement. The paper provides and overview of the country situation with regard to displacement resulting from development interventions. It looks firstly at the Accelerated Mahaweli Development Project (AMPD) and then narrows the focus to the Colombo Katunayake Expressway (CKE) and the Southern Transport Development Project (STDP), two in-process transport interventions. It looks at development driven displacement in the two projects in terms of scale, state measures such as the national policy on involuntary resettlement, institutional mechanisms, such as specific displacement plans and allied processes such as stakeholder discussion, public awareness raising, project implementation, public participation, activism an response.