National Olympic Committee Chairman Hemasiri Fernando in a shocking revelation said that if not for the crafty intervention of President Mahinda Rajapakse, building of the new NOC headquarters would have remained a dream as the Cabinet Memorandum moved initially to allocate an 80 perch land from Colombo 7 for the new building had been discarded by the former President Chandrika Kumaratunga once.

"President Mahinda Rajapakse, who was the Prime Minister then phoned me and said not to get disheartened after the initial Cabinet Memorandum was discarded by the them President. He said that the Memorandum would be presented again in a cabinet meeting headed by him. And Minister Jeewan Kumaratunga did exactly that later when Rajapakse was heading a cabinet meeting. The Cabinet paper was approved there and we were able to get the much needed land to build the NOC headquarters," revealed Fernando addressing a gathering of journalists in front of the newly built NOC Headquarters which will be ceremonially opened on Thursday.

Fernando thanked President Mahinda Rajapakse and former Sports Minister Jeewan Kumaratunga for their intervention to get the land.

The National Olympic Committee will move to their newly built headquarters situated in the heart of Colombo-7 on Thursday.

Earlier estimated to cost 135 million, the new NOC HQ has been built at an extended cost of 157 million as the price of building material had increased dramatically during the past two years, Fernando said.

While Asian Olympic Committee and INOC have funded a part of the budget, the NOC has spent 100 million from their coffers. "When we took control of the NOC in 1997 there was just a sum of rupees 60,000 and we managed to increase it to 100 million as of late. We saved nearly 90 million as fixed deposits and increased it to 100 million recently. We used that money for the building," said Fernando answering journalists.

The new facility is equipped with a modern gymnasium and an auditorium. And the NOC is planning to provide these facilities at a price to cover up the maintenance cost of the building. Fernando also said that the facility will be made available for athletes as well.