COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s main cemetery is set to introduce a 10-fold hike in the price of burial plots to ease congestion in the capital’s most prestigious graveyard dating from British colonial rule, officials said Thursday.

The Colombo Municipal Council, which administers the carefully tended Colombo General Cemetery, said demand for burial plots has surged while the cost has remained unchanged for a quarter-century.

“We have a serious space problem at the cemetery and demand is rising,” Colombo Mayor A.J.M. Muzamil told AFP.

“The rates are not reflective of market value and we want to correct that,” Muzamil added.

Only Colombo’s 550,000 residents are entitled to make the green, tree-lined cemetery their final resting place. “But outsiders are also ‘dying’ to be buried there,” the council’s chief medical officer Ruwan Wijayamuni told AFP.

“Some buy plots in the name of residents and the burial plot is actually used by someone from outside,” Wijayamuni said.