Business Shipping

Lanka to chair Indian Ocean RPSCC for three years

Sri Lanka has been selected to chair the Indian Ocean Region Port State Control Committee for the next 3 year period from 2008, the Ports Authority sources said.

The previous years’ Committees were Chaired by South Africa, Australia and India until conclusion of the 9th meeting recently.

The 10th Meeting was chaired by Sri Lanka represented by A. R. M. Abeyratne Banda of the Merchant Shipping Division of the Ministry of Ports and Aviation for the next 3 years, its sources said. The Port State Control System, aims to verify the foreign flagged vessels calling at a port of a State, comply with applicable international maritime conventions.

When vessels are found not to be in substantial compliance with applicable laws or relevant convention requirements, the PSC system imposes actions to ensure they are brought into compliance. Ships to be inspected are selected on the basis of criteria outlined in the Memorandum and a non-discriminatory policy is observed.

Under the Memorandum each authority will establish and maintain an effective system of Port State Control. The ultimate goal is to identify and eliminate substandard ships from the region.

The memorandum of understanding on Port State Control, in the Indian Ocean region was finalized on the basis of the first preparatory meeting in India in October 1997 and the second meeting in June 1998 in South Africa.

The second meeting was attended by Australia, Bangladesh, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, India, Iran, Kenya, Maldives, Mauritius, Mozambique, Myanmar, Oman, Seychelles, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania and Yemen.

In order to review the Port State Control Regimes in the Indian Ocean Region, Port State Control Committee met ten occasions so far and the last committee meeting was held in South Africa from 13th to 16th August, 2007.

More focus given to development:

Hambantota sea port construction work in progress

Ports and Aviation Minister Chamal Rajapaksa paid a visit to Lanka Hydraulic Institute Ltd, the consultants for the physical modelling project of the Phase 1 - Hambantota Seaport Development.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) and the China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) concerning the Detail Design Studies of Hambantota Seaport Development was signed in Colombo last year and the SLPA on behalf of CHEC and the Fourth Harbour Engineering Investigation and Design Institute (FHEIDI) requested LHI to submit studies on Hydraulic Mathematical and Physical Modelling on the said site.

Minister Chamal Rajapaksa met Chief Executive / Director of LHI Malith Mendis and his team of professionals, working on the project, to inquire about the on-going modelling in LHI’s state-of-art flume and model basin located in the company’s premises in Katubedda.

Previously, LHI was also engaged to provide services of a feasibility study for the development of the Hambantota Seaport in 2004 after which the mathematical modelling studies for the Preliminary Design for the proposed site, were completed in September 2005.

“The strategy adopted was to construct 2 breakwaters in front of Karagan Lewaya lagoon and to provide shelter to single berth to be located in the outer harbour area.

These two breakwaters should at a later stage be able to be incorporated into the final design when the complete harbour will be developed inside the Karagan Lewaya lagoon. Two schemes were forwarded to fulfill the purpose and scope of this study,” revealed Dr. Raveethiran, Coastal Engineering Expert of LHI.

As Research Engineer of LHI Tharanga Pemasiri explained the main objective of the study is to assess the harbour tranquillity during the normal wave conditions and intense wave conditions and the assuring of safer and convenient ship operations within the harbour which is also followed by fine-tuning of the selected harbour layout.

“The detailed model study was carried out for the proposed harbour layout for several wave conditions. Wave heights were measured during both normal and extreme wave conditions, with and without ship motion.

Measurements of various types of waves of the harbour have been taken for 2 consecutive years from the proposed site, beginning April 2006,” said Pemasiri.

More focus was given to the development of the Hambantota Seaport after recognising the limited growth potential of the Colombo and Galle harbours and the potential to developing the Southern Province.

The requirements for a major sea port in the Asian region and the subcontinent is essential to achieve an economic growth in terms of catering to international investors.

Meanwhile the Ministry of Environment, Energy and Water, Maldives (MEEW), called proposals for Consultancy Services for Development of Sewerage Facilities in ten islands in an aim to implement centralised sewerage system in many islands to enhance quality of life of people in Male.

This contract was won by Lanka Hydraulic Institute in association with Water Solutions (Pvt) Ltd of the Maldives.

The Maldives consists of around 1,200 coral islands grouped in a double chain of twenty seven atolls. Most atolls consist of a large, ring-shaped coral reef supporting a number of small islands. Islands average only one to two square kilometres in area, and lie between one and 1.5 metres above mean sea level.

Most residents of the atolls depend on groundwater or rainwater for drinking purposes. The islands’ poor sewerage system has polluted ground water and marine environment in many islands.

Panama-Cargo volume increases by 32 per cent

Panama Maritime Authority (AMP) Administrator Fernando Solorzano announced that containerized cargo moved in Panamanian ports grew by 32.2 per cent in 2007 to 4,003,731 teus, compared to 3,027,562 teus in 2006. It was the first time that cargo volume passed the record figure of 4m teus.

Colon Container Terminal (CCT) throughput grew by 14.9 per cent to 705,252 teus; Manzanillo International Terminal (MIT) volume decreased by 3.9 per cent to 1,279,903 teus; Panama Ports Co Balboa cargo increased by 85.5 per cent to 1,833,778; Panama Ports Cristobal throughput increased by 106.2 per cent to 166,641 teus.

“The excellent performance of Panamanian ports is mostly due to the expansion carried out at all the terminals during the past two years and by the constant growth of transshipment business”, said AMP Administrator Fernando Solorzano, a press release states.