Port that many preferred not to see:

People's dream comes true

by Jai Sunthush Abeyewardene

Soon tea, rubber and coconut playing centre stage in the islands economy close to 500 years to serve the pallets of the rich in the west, will give way to an ocean centred economy and make Sri lanka one step closer to the cherished goal "Sri Lanka - Asia's Miracle" as expounded by "Mahinda Chintanaya."

Leonard Woolf, British Civil Servant and famed author when his feet first touched the golden soil at Hambantota exactly hundred years ago in the year 1910 has gone on record of saying that Hambantota had all the ingredients to make it one of the busiest of ports in this side of the world.

Hambantota, destined to become one of the finest of harbours in the world carved out entirely from land will soon be ceremonially opened by His Excellency Mahinda Rajapaksa, President of the Republic of Sri Lanka when sea water would flow to let four ships en route to the far-east anchor for supplies, said Susil Premajayantha, Minister of Petroleum Industries to the Sunday Observer.

All these years, the country's "powers-to-be" couldn't foresee or rather turned a blind eye to the economic gains that it could gain by offering to serve the close to 300 ships a day that plyed on a bussy sea lane close to Sri Lanka.

If not for the visionary zeal enshrined in the "Mahinda Chintanaya" we would still be looking to the west for our sustenance through tea, rubber and coconut the major foreign exchange earners until now.

The ministry of petroleum industry is geared to play a crucial role in this venture as fuel supplies to ships anchoring in the Hambantota port will be handled by the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation, he explained.

On completion of the project in the not so distant future, it would usher in an era of prosperity of unprecedented magnitude unheard of close to centuries in the countries history.

In this respect five harbours are to be developed along with Hambantota in Colombo South, Galle, Oluvil and Kankesanthurai. Hambantota port is made possible by a generous loan by the Chinese government and it would probably be one of the best Free Ports in Asia.

So not surprisingly Sri Lanka's strategic location on the route between the Indian and Pacific Oceans makes Sri Lanka especially Hambantota the region's obvious bunker and ship supply hub, he continued.

Hambantota port will first start with the storage and sale of bunker fuels, mainly for ships passing the south coast and the US $76.5-million bunker terminal built with an initial capacity of 500,000 metric tonnes (mt) is expected to be completed in mid-2011. Bunker tank space is expected to be leased out to local and foreign firms.

The entire Hambantota port project consists of four stages which is scheduled to be completed in 15 years following the 2007 start. The first phase of the project includes the bunkering terminal, a 1,000-metre jetty and an oil refinery, he added.

Some of the industry friendly measures introduced by the Ministry of Petroleum Industries so far are: a programme to educate petroleum importers of the importance of preserving quality of lubricants, opening eight new petrol sheds in the north at a cost of 8.6 million and continuing the exploration of oil in the Mannar basin in 3 stages, he said concluding the interview.