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Excavation and dredging in progress :
Hambantota Port to be ready ahead of schedule
Ramani Kangaraarachchi
Sixty-five percent of the work on two break-water alms (east and
west) of the Hambantota Port has been completed and excavation and
dredging is in progress for the channel across the Karagamlewaya.
| A leader in the maritime
sector
* The vision of the Government is to develop
Sri Lanka as a competitive Maritime and Logistics Centre and to
be a leader in the Maritime Sector in the region.
* The National Policy for Ports and Shipping
envisions a development strategy with a timeframe up to 2020 to
make Sri Lanka a Maritime and Logistic Centre in the region.
* The total cost for Phase one is USD 360
million.
* The project was launched in April 2008 and
Phase one will be completed by 2010. |
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The proposed Hambantota port |
The project can be completed before the estimated time in 2011, Chief
Engineer Southern Port Development Janaka Kurukulasuriya told Daily News
Business.
He said that the port will be developed initially to cater to the
industrial and service sectors and later for container traffic.
As excavation is being done under dry conditions as a result of
preventing water coming to the basin from outside much money and time
had been saved and underwater excavation would have c ost much more,
Kurukulasuriya said.
A new international port will be developed and containers too in the
region will be handled at the Hambantota Port encouraging industries.
The port is designed for futuristic needs of deep draughts and wide
yard areas so that when the Colombo Port is unable to expand facilities,
the Hambantota Port will be ready to take over that demand and be ahead
of competitors in the region, he said. Containers too will be handled
for the region, he said.
Hambantota is a highly underutilized land and is in close proximity
to international shipping routes.
At present more than 100 vessels bypass the Sri Lanka South-West
coast daily with no value addition to the country’s economy, he said.
Therefore, the Hambantota Port will be developed to cater to twelve
areas - Thermal power generation, oil refinery and petrochemical
industry, coal fired power plant, bunkering services, coal transshipment
and distribution, ship-building and repair activities, transshipment car
activities, bonded export processing zone, bulk cargo and general cargo
berths, fishing activities and export of fish products and container
traffic.
Kurukulasuriya said that the first vessel could sail from the port by
January 2011. |
