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More room for
port related services, industries once completed:
The Colombo Port is in demand for container cargo and as
such no space is available for port related industries and
services. The country badly needed the development of the
Hambantota port, Sri Lanka Ports Authority Chairman, Dr.
Priyath B. Wickrama said.
He was speaking at the 10th IAPH Asia /
Oceania Regional Meeting and Port Forum which was held in
Indonesia.
“On completion of the final phase of
Hambantota Port we will get a 13 km long quay wall length at
the minimum depth of 18m with the overall capacity of 20m
TEUs. Phase one construction work will be completed by end
of 2010 and the construction cost is around US $ 500
million”, he said.
The Hambantota Port will come into
operation early next year and under phase one, a number of
services have been identified as business ventures.
Bunkering, ship repair, ship building, crew changes are the
key businesses here as Hambantota is located at the centre
of east west shipping route and it is just six to ten
nautical miles away from the shipping route, he said.
General cargo, port services, facilities
for port related industries, ship repair and warehousing
facilities are the other key ventures and proposals for
these ventures that will be called within a months time.
The investors will be given sufficient
time to put up their infrastructure and be ready to commence
operations once the port is operational early 2011.
In order to ensure the smooth functioning
of these ventures, container handling facilities will be
provided even during phase one construction works.
More than 85 percent of the Hambantota
Port Development Project is financed by the Chinese
Government on a loan agreement signed between the two
countries.
The construction work is done by a
Chinese consortium. However the entire port belongs to the
Government and all operations will be handled by the Sri
Lanka Ports Authority.
Indonesia and several other countries
including Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Australia, Malaysia and Japan
also participated at the Forum held in Indonesia.
(DN-22022010) |
