On April 4, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) announced that it had approved the Colombo Urban Regeneration Project, a $200 million project that the Bank states “will improve housing conditions for low-income communities in Colombo by constructing affordable housing and redeveloping land” and will “improve living conditions for those most in need in the country.”

The AIIB-funded project is part of a broader initiative, the Urban Regeneration Project (URP), under which an estimated 50,000 households will be resettled. The initiative has a long and complex history.