Colombo South Port a reality soon

by Gamini Warushamana

President Mahinda Rajapaksa thanked international financial institutions for supporting the Government without conditions. 'We have given equal priority to peace and development. While we attempt to find a solution to the national question we have given equal priority to development.

During the last year we started several major development projects which were pending for many years. The Upper Kotmale hydro power project, Norochcholai coal power project and Weerawila international airport are some of them and we have envisaged a massive development program for 2007, he said. He was addressing the ceremony to launch the Colombo port expansion project.

The President said that as other regional ports are developing rapidly we too have to develop our ports to face the competition. This development project would place the Colombo port in a leading position in the region, he said.

Colombo Port Expansion Project (CPEP) is the largest project undertaken by the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA). It is a government build and own harbour facility and will have a private-public partnership in the provision of terminal services. In addition, the SLPA will be the overall landlord, with an equity stake in each terminal.

Construction work on the breakwaters and the first terminal is scheduled to be completed within 39 months and commissioned in 2010. Tender documents will be issued from December 26 and SLPA expects to award the construction tender by July 2007.

CPEP consists of two breakwaters, 5Km and 1Km in length and four container terminals of four berths each. The new port basin will have a dredged depth of 18m and an access channel with 20m depth. The South terminal to be launched first will be 1200m in length, sufficient for 3x400m berths.

There are two more similar terminals under phase 1 of the project and the construction work will start subsequently with the increasing demand. The capacity of a terminal will be 2.4 million TEUs. Phase 2 of the project includes an extension of the breakwater and construction of one more terminal.

The new port infrastructure and the first three terminals would cost around US$ 1,200 million. The ADB will provide a concessional loan facility for the project.

The new port will have the latest generation yard planning and container handling equipment and techniques. After the completion of the CPEP the capacity of the Colombo port will increase to 12 million TEUs, a threefold increase from the present capacity of four million TEUs.

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