NewsChina wants to build houses and roads in Sri Lanka’s north, Chinese and Sri Lankan officials said, in a bid to expand it influence beyond the island’s south. In April, state-run China Railway Beijing Engineering Group Co Ltd won a more than $300 million project to build 40,000 houses in the northern district of Jaffna. Sumanthiran, a legislator from the regional Tamil National Alliance, said authorities had opened negotiations with India for the housing project. Two senior ministers in the Sri Lankan cabinet told Reuters that China had offered to build houses, roads, and water storage facilities at a cost lower than offered by its competitors. India has longstanding ties with Sri Lanka, located just off the tip of southern India, bound by cultural and ethnic links with Sri Lanka’s Tamils, many of whom live in the island’s north and east.

Source: Sunday Times August 24, 2018 09:56 UTC