39 CHAPTER III THE SIGNIFICANCE OF BORELLA IN THE CONTEXT OF COLOMBO CITY Borellalies to the. east of Central Colombo(Fort & pettah), about 3 miles from the Central Business District of the city. This tQ;wn or sub-centre, while being within the Colombo Municipal limits, also forms some of Colombo's borders. Borella is one of the gateways to the city, with three of Colombo's major traffic routes namely, Baseline Road, Maradana Road and Cotta Road running through it. A high concentration of commercial development is found at the junction in Borella where these roads i.o~ meet. The study area in this report comprises Borella town and the stretch of Baseline Road from Campbell Park to Kanatte. It also extends up to the Archbishop's Palace in Maradana Road and to the Kelani-Valley railway line in the east. Borella town centre serves a large sector of the population of the city by reason of its commercial and service facilities. Many come to Borella to do their shopping and to avail themselves of various other services. The General Hospital which is the largest in the entire country lies on one of the boundaries of Borella town. The Lady Ridgeway Hospital for children, which is the only one of its kind in the island is in the heart of the Borella area. The largest cemetery in the country forms one of the bounderies of Borella. The health, educational, postal, telecommunication, banking , recreational and other services available in Borella attract an increasing number of people t< its core area. It is found that people living in areas as far away as Peliyagoda on Baseline Road, and Battaramulla on Kotte Road, visit Borella to obtain their daily requirements. PHYSICAL FEATURES OF THE STUDY AREA The land comprising the area forms a part of two hillocks which rise from a few feet to 50 feet above sea level, and a valley. To the east of the town centre, the land slopes and ends in marshy areas. The Magazine Prison is situated on one of the hillocks and the highest point of $k feet above M.S.L. lies within the prison. Campbell Park is in the valley between the.two hills. The area to the south of the town centre from the cemetery to Cinnamon Gardens is fairly flat, (see illustration Geologically, the land consists of hard earth laterites and gneisses. Climatic characteristics of the study area is given in illustration X. 40 A CONTOUR MAP OF THE STUDY AREA ILLUSTRATION IX CLIMATIC CHARACTERISTICS OF BORELLA * 300— 2 00 — —5 100— NORT H-lASl) SOUTH-WEST NQRTH-I AST —o MONS0(iN HON 5 DON MONSOON JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC MEAN VALUES FOR THE THIRTY TEAR PERIOD 1K5-1975 SOURCE STATISTICAL ABSTRACT OF THE DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF SRI LANKA I ILLUSTRATION £ 42 LAND-USE There is no accurate and up to-date survey of Borella from which the extents of land used f-or different .purposes could be ascertained. However an attempt has been subsequently made to prepare a detailed land survey for use in this study. The total area of Borella which comprises two of Colombo's wards, is 385 acres ( 155.6 hectares). Generally, the largest area is occupied by residen­ tial buildings, which stand on 50 percent of the total area. The classification of the land-use depicted by this study is given below :- TABLE I LAND*"-USE CLASSIFICATION TYPE ACREAGE PRECENTAGE Residential 190.30 Acres 49.42^ Commercial 16.64 Ac. 4.32# Industrial(Govt. Bakery) 10.60 Ac. 2.75/0 (Govt. Press ) Park <£ Open spaces 9.72 Ac. 2.525^ Undeveloped lands 24.12 Ac. 6.26% Construction sites 29.69 Ac. 7.7156 Offi ce s/Embas sy 5.50 •*• Ac. 1.42$ ( continued on page 45 ) CITY OF COUOM EXISTING LAND USE PRIMARY RESIDENTIAL DHHI MIXED RESIDENTIAL MM/M COMMERCIAL TRANSPORT INDUSTRIES a WARE HOUSING PUBLIC 8 SEMl-PUBLICLl BAMBALAPITIYA -PARKS 8c OPEN SPACES 1 i CEMETERY 7 DEFERRED WyY ^ WATER WT XI ,bDAM nc\/r:i rtDUCMT AirruADiTV II I IIQTRATION LAND USE PLAN - ( NO: 1) (Source - Borella Land use survey - Jan: 19&2 ) 45 '• TYPE ACREAGE PRECENTAGE Health services 20.81 Acres 5.40% Educational 16.82 Ac. 4.36% Religious 21.68 Ac. 5.63% Prison/Police Station 36.07 AC. 9.37% Unspecified 3.05 Ac 0.84% Totals 385.00 Ac. 100.00% Source - Borella Town Survey - 1982 POPULATION According to the 1981 census the study area houses a population of 28,125 persons while the population of the city- of Colombo is 5»85,776. Borella represents 4.8% of Colombo's population, and occupies only 4.1% of the total area of the city. TABLE II POPULATI ON DENSITY: YEAR PERSONS/ACRE PERSONS/ACRE IN BORELLA IN COLOMBO 1977 68.63 61.0 197? 74.57 65.2 1981 73.05 6.3.5 Source - Department of Census & Statistics 46 TABLE III GROWTH HATE • DOUELLA COLOMBO Birth rate(per 1000 persons) 20.25 21 .1. 1977 Death rate(Per 1000 persons) 7.00 7 .9 1977 Infant death rate (per 1000 persons ) 1977 Growth rate (1977 - 197? ) 8.64 7 .0 In comparing the population data of Borella with that of the rest of Colombo, some of the most signigicant differences are seen in the racial and religious rati­ os. Borella has a very high precentage of Buddhists (74,2%) as against 43.1% in the city as a whole. The presentage of the Sinhalese in Borella is also very much higher than in the rest of the city. Another important factor is that the infant death rate for Borella is 48.25 which is very high. The trend os the high growth rate is also significant. This could be attributed to deaths o-ccurring in the children's hospital at Borella. It is evident from , the process of rehabilitation ( or habitation) in the sub-centres of Colombo that settlement has taken the form of a general scatter (ribbon development) along the major roads. POPULATION COLOMBO * 100% BORELLA = 4 8% SEX MALES FEMALES MALES FEMALES BORELLA COLOMBO AGE OVER l8Yrs UNDER 18 Yr& UNDER 18 Yrt. BORELLA COLOMBO. DEPT. OF CCNSUS » STATISTICS ILLUSTRATION'S?! RELIGIOUS CLASSIFICATION 0-5 OTHERS 20 OTHER CHRISHONS g|2 5 ROMAN CATHOLIC MUSLIMS HINDU BUDDHIST 100 90 60 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 0 10 20 30 40 SO 60 70 8 0 90 100 BORELLA COLOMBO ETHNIC CLASSIFICATION 0-5 I OTHERS II MALAY 24 1-2 BURGHER l«i S7l SRI LANKA MOOR 1.3 INDIAN TAMIL 1-9 107; 5*1' HA NX A TAMIL SINHALESE so o m 100 M as 70 to 54 ,4 ia » 01 11 BORELLA COLOMBO ILLUSTRATION SOURCE - DEPT. OF CENSUS « STATISTICS Table IV POPULATION DATA OF BORELLA 1981 ; (O - 4) (5-1-4) (15-44) (45-59) (6o&uP) (5-l4) ~ _ 1 Agriculture Non:Agri: Total Ti 14263 1794 3177 7373 1363 556 71.3 60 3493 . 3553 M.. 8245 836 1616 4597 822 274 72.4 57 2911 2968 F. 6018 858 1561 2776 54l 282 70.2 03 582 585 35 Borella T. 12130 650 1493 8000 1283 704 71.0 ' 143 4490 4633 South M. 8132 322 770 5925 749 368 70.5 l4l 3741 3882 F. 3098 328 723 2075 534 338 71.5 02 , 749- 751 03 T. 15008 2061 4007 6700 1569 671 58.9 3757 46 3711 Borella M. 8247 106l 2040 3853 94l 352 60.0 3450 4l 3409 F. 6761 1000 1967 2847 628 319 57.8 307 05 302 Source Dept. of Census & Statistics 50 TRANSPORT AND TRANSPORTATION The road pattern shows a close network of roads through-out the* areaFive major roads meet at Borella junction. These are Baseline Road, Maradana Road, Cotta Road, Ward Place and D,. S. Senanayake Mawatha. Baseline Road passes through Dematagoda and is the link to Kandy Road and Negombo Road across the new Kelani bridge. This Is ar very busy road having a very'high traffic- flow. It is very narrow near Borella junction where the pavement hawkers and shops give rise to a lot of traffic problems. As a solution to this, the Highways Department has detoured the out­ going traffic of Baseline Road through Borella Cross Road making it "One Way". However this has made the traffic situation worse on Maradana Road. The five major roads which converge on Borella junction are all subject to severe congestion especially where they approach the junction. This is mainly due to the intermittent narrowness of most of the roads and to the intense commercial activities that prevail there. The Borella-end of Ward Place ! for instance, is now virtually a vegetable market while, on Maradana Road, the system of"centre- parking'has necessitated d©'parking vehicles rever­ sing into the traffic stream and thereby holding up traffic, besides risking accidents. 51 MAJOR ROADS IN THE l#jA-aA COLOMBO REGION -J© / \ / KADAWATA LMAfJADANA 30RELLA KOTTE LMALABE kMftALAPITlYA BATXARAMUL &1RALOPANA 3ANN1P1TIYA WMAGAMA iRATMALANAV IPILIYANDALA I '0. ft. ILLUSTRATION 52 CITY OF COLOMBO TRANSPORT SYSTEM Mo.O PROJECT AREA :OLLUPiTiy/ REFERENCE JAMBALAPITIYA EXISITING ROADS PROPOSED HIGHWAYS |IUI.IIIMIII( RAJiy/AY ' UNE PROJECT AREA ILLUSTRATION 7? Another of these major roads- Cotta Road-is unsafe for traffic not only because it is narrow at points and badly maintained, but also on account of the many sharp bends on it. Baseline Road, though subject to "One Way" traffic along ci short stretch near the junction, is nevertheless congested, due to the numerous textile and other stalls that encroach on it, compelling shoppers to expose themselves to the hazards of traffic.