Hambantota Port:
Deputy Minister invites UNP MP to debate
Ports and Highways Deputy Minister Rohitha Abeygunawardena has
rejected charges levelled by UNP Member of Parliament Harin Fernando
that the location of the Hambantota Harbour had been made without
conducting a feasibility study whatsoever.
Rejecting this charge the Deputy Minister has said that the location
was made after a careful study of five places in the surrounding area.
Parliamentarian Harin Fernando on behalf of the United National Party
had issued a press release on April 18 in which he had accused the
government saying that no ships were coming to the Hambantota Harbour
due to the fact that there is a large rock.
Deputy Minister Rohitha Abeygunawardena has challenged the UNP
Parliamentarian to come for a debate on the issue over any electronic
media in the country.
He has told Parliamentarian Harin Fernando to come for the debate
even with anybody who has a knowledge on the issue. The Deputy Minister
is ready to come for the debate with Sri Lanka Ports Authority Chairman,
engineers attached to the Hambantota Harbour Project and Foreign Agency
Managers who provide support for the project.
‘The UNP Member says that it was compulsory for the harbour to have
30 metres depth without which no large ships could be anchored there.
The Deputy Minister said the UNP Member’s statement was false as there
are no international harbours anywhere in the world with a depth of 30
metres. The Deputy Minister stressed that it was natural when digging
the earth for a harbour for rocks to appear but this was no reason one
gives up the project.
The Deputy Minister has also challenged the UNP Member to come to the
harbour and show the rock he talks about. He said the Hambantota Harbour
would be a Harbour Mouth with a width of 225 metres enabling large
ships, including any large ship to be constructed in the next 50 years
to enter the harbour. The present width of the harbour is 160 metres and
the depth 19 1/2 metres.
He says that the maximum depth of the Colombo Harbour was 16 metres
and other harbours in the world have depths of 18, 18 1/2 and 19 metres
respectively.
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