Gamini Dissanayake (1942–1994) was the minister responsible for the Accelerated Mahaweli Development Programme, the largest infrastructure undertaking in Sri Lanka's post-independence history.
A lawyer, he entered Parliament in 1970 and became Minister of Lands, Land Development and Mahaweli Development in 1977. The accelerated programme compressed a thirty-year plan into six years, building the Victoria, Kotmale, Randenigala and Maduru Oya dams, generating a large share of the country's electricity and irrigating substantial new farmland. It also displaced tens of thousands of people, and its resettlement record remains debated.
He was also instrumental in Sri Lanka securing Test cricket status in 1981, as president of the national cricket board. He was assassinated in October 1994 while campaigning as the United National Party's presidential candidate.