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| Thursday, 17 July 2003 |
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New port for Lanka, an urgent need By Channa Kasturisinghe The shipping community in Sri Lanka which has been stressing the need for a new port on a priority basis has expressed concern over the tug-of-war attitude by the authorities with regard to the implementation of the two proposed port projects in Hambantota and Colombo (South Port). The implementation of both projects has been delayed for several years. The Hambantota Port project seemed to get underway with the signing of the feasibility agreement with a Canadian firm last year but will it be given priority over the south port project is still a question among shipping circles. The Hambantota Port project is tentatively estimated to cost US dollars 1.7 billion while the South port project is estimated at 1.8 billion US dollars. The consultancy services agreement of the latter was signed between a top UK based firm of consultants and the Government recently amidst much controversy. Southern Region Development Minister K. Ananda Kularatne told the Daily News that the Government would give priority in developing the Hambantota Port as it is an urgent need as far as the development of the Southern parts of the country is concerned. "The construction of the Hambantota Port is one of the election pledges of the UNF Government and we give priority to that project. Studies have shown that this project is 100 percent feasible and it would be a major step towards developing the Southern region. The port project is an important component of a massive development project in the South including the setting up of an oil refinery, an international airport and other infrastructure developments. That is why the government has considered providing 40 percent of the total investment needed to develop the port. We are expecting the final feasibility report but we are not yet committed to any international firm with regard to the handing over of construction activities," the Minister said. However, the view of the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) on the matter is not clear as the senior officials seem to consider the setting up of the Colombo South port as important as the Hambantota port project. SLPA Chairman, Parakrama Dissanayake told National Review Committee at the Treasury last Tuesday that their efforts are to make Colombo an exclusively containarised port in order to meet the demand by 2012. "While enhancing the Colombo port's capacity we are embarking on the Colombo South Port Development project. It would be a brand new port adjacent to the Colombo port which is the ideal way of meeting the demand by 2012," he said. He said that although there is potential for Hambantota as a service port to be used mainly for ship repairs and bunkering purposes making it a container port would depend on the future demand. However Rohan Perera, Chairman, Ceylon Association of Ships Agents (CASA) said that the need of the hour is a new port and whether it would be in Hambantota, Galle or Colombo would be a secondary issue. "Having decided that the Government should ascertain the financial and commercial viability of constructing a port in one of these areas. We are already behind time and it is vital that a strategic decision is taken by the authorities to implement it without wasting more time," Perera said. Some shipping sources said that expediting the Hambantota port project would be more advantageous considering the fact that more shipping lines prefer it to the Colombo port which is an eight hours deviation from the main East-West shipping route. Meanwhile, SNC Lavalin, representative in Sri Lanka, Cecil Ekanayake, said that the final feasibility report of the Hambantota port will be presented in September as scheduled. He also said that Lavalin, has invested US$ 1.5 million to carry out the feasibility study of the proposed Hambantota sea port expecting the Government to give preference to them in the construction of the port. "The company was interested in this project from the beginning. We are ready to undertake the construction of the port on Build-Own-Operate and Transfer (BOOT) basis. We are doing a proper feasibility study and we have selected the most suitable location to build the port. We have already done a pre-feasibility study including financial and socio economic evaluation. We have estimated the approximate cost on developing the port in three stages," he said. He said the Senior Vice President (Asia) of the firm is scheduled to visit the island next Monday and meet Government officials to discuss the future arrangements regarding the Hambantota port. |
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