Srilanka, May 15 -- The old Parliament building, located at Galle Face in Colombo and facing the ocean, was officially opened on January 29, 1930 by the then-Governor, Sir Herbert Stanley. Due to the limited space within the old Parliament building and the lack of available land for expansion, then-Prime Minister Ranasinghe Premadasa presented a proposal to Parliament in the late 1970s, specifically on July 4, 1979, to relocate Parliament to a new location.

It was decided to construct a new Parliament in Sri Jayewardenepura Kotte. The site selected was a small 16-acre island which was a wetland in the Diyawanna Oya, which once belonged to the Kingdom of Sri Jayewardenepura Kotte.

The new Parliament was built on the site of the palace o...