Digana

Digana is a lakeside town in Kandy District, Central Province, on the A26 Kandy-Teldeniya road, at about 510 m elevation on the eastern side of the Kandyan plateau beside the Victoria Reservoir. It grew into the area's main service town after the Victoria Dam project, part of the Accelerated Mahaweli Development Programme, resettled the district in the 1980s and affected the older centre at neighbouring Teldeniya.

The town is known for the Victoria Reservoir, which covers about 22.7 sq km, and Victoria Dam itself, completed in 1985, which at 122 m is the tallest dam in the country and feeds the largest hydroelectric power station in Sri Lanka. Locally, Digana is also known for dolomite mineral processing, an industry first introduced to the country in this area, and older sites nearby include the Bambaragala Rajamaha Viharaya and the Ambalama at Kengalla.

Kandy is about 14.9 km away, roughly 17 minutes by car in free-flowing traffic, and Colombo is about 128.7 km away, around two hours and 13 minutes by car. There is no railway station in or near Digana; the nearest is in Kandy. The Central Expressway is still under construction between Kadawatha and Mirigama and has not yet reached Kandy District, so the A26 remains the only road route in and out.

Schools include Rajawella National School, Kengalla Maha Vidyalaya and Teldeniya National School, and the National Hospital in Kandy and the District General Hospital at Teldeniya serve the wider area alongside smaller local clinics. A Cargills Food City in Digana covers everyday shopping. The reservoir shoreline and views towards the Knuckles range are the main outdoor draw, and a resident's day here typically means using Digana for daily needs while travelling into Kandy for larger shopping or specialist healthcare.

Tourism along the Victoria Reservoir shoreline has grown in recent years, with hotels and a golf resort operating around the lake, and the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium lies on the same Kandy-Teldeniya corridor a short distance away. No expressway or rail extension into Kandy District is currently under construction. New residential developments in and around Digana are listed further down this page.

Digana tends to suit buyers wanting a lakeside setting within a short drive of Kandy, holiday-home buyers drawn to the reservoir views and the cooler hill-country climate, and people with ties to the local dolomite or hospitality and resort sector.