Photographs released on Mahinda's ....

Photographs released on Mahinda's ....

underground mansion!

We have received photographs of an underground mansion in Fort, President's House erected for private use of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

It is understood that during the regime of the former

President, friends of Namal Rajapaksa who were engaged in Rugger had taken residence here and that there is also a Yoga Centre as well as a gym here.  Six super luxury rooms are to be seen here and all the rooms are equipped with separate bathrooms. Though an assembly hall and an emergency exit also is observed, its constructions are still not over. This mansion boasts of a concrete wall of about 6 feet and it is reported that the concrete surface on the top is about 12 feet in thickness. There are 2 floors above the ground as well as 2 floors underground too. An electric lift could be noted underground to access floors of about 40 feet underground. From that point there is an underground tunnel erected towards the Port of Colombo and it is learned that it has been constructed with a layer of highly thick concrete. Roughly speaking this mansion spans an extent of approximately 15000 square feet while all domestic equipment are those imported from Italy. The expenses to complete the construction of this building has not been recorded anywhere and officials of the Presidential Secretariat have still not calculated the figures in this connection.

Though nobody lives at present in this underground mansion, an electricity bill amounting to about 30 lakhs has to be expended because the air condition units functioning within and have been installed in such a manner that they cannot be switched off.

President Maithripala Sirisena revealed about this mansion at the Environmental President's Award Ceremony held recently at the President's House in Fort in the presence of a group of school children.

The collection of photographs, from below