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| Friday, 4 June 2004 |
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by Sudarshana Perera The UPFA Government is fully committed to develop port facilities and marine resources in the country, particularly the Colombo Port and other regional ports to attract more vessels to Sri Lanka. The new Unity Container Terminal is a milestone in consolidating Colombo as hub port in global container operations, said Minister of Ports and Aviation Mangala Samaraweera at the inauguration of the new terminal in the Colombo Harbour yesterday. Unity Container Terminal, a mega project funded by the Japanese Government through the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) will enable the Port of Colombo to handle an additional 300,000 TUEs per year while responding to the rapid growth of the container transhipment demand. Minister Samaraweera said the Government with Japanese assistance, will develop the Galle Harbour at a cost of US $ 140 million with two 12 meter deep berths which would help dawn a new economic order for the South. "We will adopt a systematic approach to develop a port in Hambantota and the development of the region as complementary economic entity. The development of the ports in Trincomalee, Kankasanthurai, Point Pedro and Oluvil would also be given pride of place", he said. The Minister said lands such as the Marine Drive and the Beira Lake in Colombo will be improved to provide acceptable leisure areas for citizens with waterfronts and the Galle Fort being beautified to attract more tourism. "Historically the Colombo Port is an essential sector of the economy of our island nation as imports and exports depend on cost effective efficient port operations. We would take every possible to develop port infrastructure thus exploiting strategic location of Sri Lanka for transhipment cargo handling," Samaraweera said. He also commended the Government of Japan , JAICA and JBIC for the support extended for port development in Sri Lanka. Japanse Ambassador, Akio Suda said the new Unity Container Terminal would play a vital role making Sri Lanka as the regional hub with state-of-the-art technology which would further allow to reap the benefits of Sri Lanka's strategic location in the marine route. "We would further extend our fullest cooperation to make the Colombo Port the finest in the world. The other project will be the dredging of north channel of the Colombo Port to increase its depth from 11 m to 13 m. The upgrading will allow inbound and outbound vessels to use separate lanes," he said. Awards were presented to port employees who excelled at the SAF games held in Pakistan. Deputy Minister of Port and Aviation, Dayasritha Tissera, Minister of Infrastructure Development (Eastern Province) A. L. M. Athaulla, Secretary of the Ministry of Ports and Aviation Ariyaratne Hewage, SLPA Chairman Deelepa Wijesundera were also present. |
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