Ship building industry:

SL to share technical expertise with B’desh

Ramani KANGARAARACHCHI

Sri Lanka shipping industry is geared to face future demands with the building of many international harbours in the country.

Institute of Marine Engineering Science and Technology, Bangladesh Branch Secretary Gholan Sarwar speaking to the ‘Daily News Business’ at the 2012 Mid East Division, Council Meeting Sri Lanka at the Mount Lavinia Hotel yesterday, said it is a welcome move to see a new harbour being built in Hambantota.

‘The expansion of the Colombo Southern harbour too would derive far reaching economic benefits to the country since Sri Lanka is strategically located in a global naval route,’ he said.

With the ongoing developments at the Colombo South Harbour expansion project the Hambantota harbour was commissioned last year.

In addition the Galle harbour is being developed as a tourist harbour while Oluvil is to be opened next year as a duel purpose harbour for both fisheries and cargo. The Indian government has come forward to develop the Kankasanthurai harbour to international level.

He said that Sri Lankan maritime employees are highly professional and very resourceful.

He said in Bangladesh the ship building industry is now picking up and they are looking at getting technical assistance and to share experience from Sri Lanka. “We are hoping to speak to Colombo Dockyard in this regard,” he disclosed.

The Ruhunu Magampura Harbour Hambantota will be one of the best marine hubs in the region in five years time, Immediate Past President Institute of Marine Engineering Science and Technology, Mid- East Division Lionel Pinto said. He said this will create a lot of employment and other opportunities for the country and the people of Sri Lanka, bringing much needed foreign exchange to the country.

He said the objective of having this council meeting is to discuss common issues related to Marine Engineering Science and Technology such as training, branch operations, problems and solutions and future plans which will be beneficial to member countries. Sri Lanka hosted the 18th Council Meeting. There are 231 members in the Sri Lanka branch.

During the year, the institute held 12 monthly committee meetings, three lecture presentations, student’s visit, as well as a few social functions.

The greatest achievement of the institute this year was to assist the students in their courses in National Diploma of Technology (NDT).

As mentioned at the last AGM, these courses have been suspended by the Ministry of Shipping on March 23 mainly due to the fact that there were no proper and updated lecture notes and also there was a shortage of lecturers. In fact, this resulted in the last two batches of the students not been eligible to sit for the exams conducted by the Shipping Ministry.