Hambantota - A man made wonder

It is with great pleasure that I pen this message on this historic milestone event of the Hambantota Port Construction Project where the Southern Sea makes the beginning to ardently hug the newly constructed 17m-deep inland harbour basin.

Today, the harbour embraces her first inflow of waters culminating the first phase of the country's foremost port construction project.

The currents of water that flows in today mark the dawn of a new era, promising greater heights and opening up whole new vistas for all Sri Lankans.

Since, the port is built close to one of the world's major shipping lanes, the shipping industry in the country will flourish with the possibility of generating entrepot businesses, expanding and diversifying port related industries in and around Hambantota.

The port, being built at a cost of US $ 437 million for the first phase is a joint venture between China Harbour Engineering and Syno Hydro Corporation with Sri Lanka Ports Authority having a stake of 15% of the total investment.

The Sri Lanka Ports Authority celebrated its 31st Anniversary on the 1st of August 2010 after its formation in 1979. If we walk down memory lane and hark back to the annals of port history, we can see that the Port Development activities in Sri Lanka can be compartmentalized into several eras. Until recently, almost all the development work centered round the Port of Colombo.

The first development era which spans from 1875 to 1912 saw most of the infrastructure development work such as breakwaters and dredging of the harbour area to 9 meters etc,.

The superiority of Colombo over Galle as a commercial port came about in the 1880's when more ships began to use Colombo. Prior to 1885, Port of Galle had been the principal port of the island.

The second development era which covers from 1950 to 1956, saw a major port development scheme undertaken by the then Ceylon in the early years of independence. Queen Elizabeth Quay, Delft Quay, Prince Vijaya Quay, North Pier and South Pier were constructed in this period.

The third development era which lasted from 1983 to 2002 saw the development of Jaya Container Terminal (JCT) stages from I to IV, Port Access Road, New Oil Terminal with oil pipelines, expansion of the Unity Container Terminal, commencement of the South Asia Gateway Terminals (SAGT) under a BOOT agreement and the deepening of the main access channel to 15m which was a grave necessity at that time in order to handle post-panamax vessels.

The fourth development era which commenced in about 2005 and we still continue to be in marked the dawn of a golden era for the port industry in Sri Lanka.

Buoyed by the passing of 2m TEU mark in 2004 and the cargo forecast done by Scott Wilson of UK a few years before, which stated in their analysis that the potential for container cargo at the Port of Colombo is tremendous and that the port would be reaching its maximum capacity of around 4.5 million in 2012, SLPA made a decision to build capacities outside the Port of Colombo.

By about 2007, SLPA had formulated three mega development projects namely, the Colombo Port Expansion Project (Colombo South Harbour), Hambantota Port Project and the Oluvil Port Development Project in addition to the improvement plans for Galle and Trincomalee Ports.

But unfortunately, to the disappointment of all of us, the world economic crisis in 2008 which was triggered by a liquidity shortfall in the United States banking system caused by the overvaluation of assets affected the global shipping and logistics industry.

It resulted in the collapse of large financial institutions and downturns in stock markets around the world and it was considered by many economists to be the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression in the 1930s.

The ripple effect of this downturn was not felt, to such a severe extent by us, but the neighbouring regional ports and shipping lines felt.

The SLPA also was pushed to a terrible predicament under the sway of the global economic downturn with all the projects at hand and was in a dilemma whether to go ahead with the projects or not.

It was at this juncture that His Excellency the President Mahinda Rajapaksa intervened and instructed all of us to carry on spending our monies on port building and infrastructure development because as he said it was the ideal time to do so then as the freight was less, cost of materials was low and we could get lower bids etc,.

We felt refreshed and invigorated by His Excellency's words and the then Hon. Minister of Ports and Aviation, Chamal Rajapaksa, Secretary to the Ministry, the Chairman SLPA, and the SLPA management team sat together and completed our plans and went ahead with our projects.

I take my hat off to His Excellency because it was His Excellency's bold decision taken at that time that has brought SLPA to where it is now with three mega development projects with an investment to the tune of US$ 1.5 billion.

The Phase 1 of the Colombo South Harbour which gives an additional 2.4 million TEU capacity will too be ready by early 2013, thus ensuring Sri Lanka, of the South Asian Container Hub status.

And, today we witness the completion of the phase 1 of the Hambantota Port Project and I am totally confident that the Port of Hambantota would be the tallest venture for the future maritime trade in Sri Lanka.

The port is gearing up to embrace a massive investment plan worth billions of rupees as the Government prepares to call proposals for business ventures that could be undertaken with the first phase of the project.

Cabinet approval has already been given for the appointment of a Project Committee and a Cabinet Appointed Negotiating Committee to call for proposals for Public Private Partnerships for a host of business ventures that have been earmarked for implementation with the completion of the phase 1.

With these ventures, the infrastructure and other facilities in and around Hambantota will be improved and the resulting boom in the shipping industry with the construction of the port will be able to play a pivotal role towards the economic development of Sri Lanka.

The first commercial ship is scheduled to arrive at the Port of Hambantota by November this year.

Let the Port of Hambantota richly deserve the admiration to be considered one of the man-made marvels of the 21st century.