Ranatunga said that a feasibility study on the project will be taken up at Ministerial Board level before the final decision is made.

Last Thursday Cabinet spokesman Minister Rajitha Senaratne declared at a Press conference that approval had been granted for the construction of the Port City.

But a day later Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe told Parliament that approval had not been granted for the project to proceed.

Ranatunga also said that not an inch of land will be given to the authority of China or any other country for that matter referring to the land that will be reclaimed from the sea on which the Port City was envisaged to be built.

He added that there will be no hesitation on the part of the government to withdraw the Port City complex should it pose any threat to security, the environment or the people of the country.

Minister Ranatunga said the Port City was not a project undertaken by the Chinese government but a venture by a private company in China and that any hint of corruption taking place through it will be dealt with in the harshest possible way.

(BBC Sandeshaya)