Colombo Engineering mulls Hambantota ship repairs

Shirajiv SIRIMANE

Colombo Engineering, involved in ship repairing for more than three decades, is looking at setting up a ship repair facility in Hambantota.

Kiran Atapattu

Colombo Engineering, CEO Kiran Atapattu said the focus now is in the Ruhunu Magampura harbour and they are looking at exploiting this situation.

He said they are looking to first set up a regional office and then move some of their operations to Hambantota.

“This is an area where we see tremendous potential in the future,” he said.

Commenting on the Hambantota Port project he said that although negative publicity stating that the project was a white elephant and a failure was politically motivated and it has proved negative.

“The investment made for the Hambantota Port was around US $ 360 million and today the Ports Authority has been able to secure investments to the tune of US $750 million,” he said.

Atapattu said these are all private sector companies not only from Sri Lanka but also from Hong Kong, India and Pakistan. “If they did not have faith would they have invested there?” he asked.

Atapattu who has set an unmatched record by winning 46 top national awards said a second international port for the country was something the shipping industry was demanding for the past three decades since the Colombo Port was getting more congested and waiting time for vessels to enter the Port was getting longer.

“This was taking the competitiveness of the Colombo Port and with Hambantota in place Colombo will get more revenue,”

Having won his first award as the emerging entrepreneur in 1977 he said that the success for winning was sheer dedication and on time delivery which is a must for any business to move ahead.

The business community is happy and is thanking President Mahinda Rajapaksa for ending the war and also lifting the emergency helping to attract more foreign direct investments.