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Over Rs. 4.2 m worth wooden sleepers lying idle at Port

by Manjula Fernando

Over Rs. 4.25 million worth of wooden sleepers imported by the Railways Department from Australia last December, are now lying idle at the Colombo Port causing great inconvenience and a loss to the Ports Authority, official sources told the Daily News yesterday.

The Railways Department following their Engineers ruling that the sleepers were of low quality, had decided to disclaim the shipment which came in 70 containers. They got two of them released for inspection and the balance 68 are now at the Colombo Port.

Even though the normal procedure would have been to auction the goods to collect their charges, due to the low quality of these sleepers the Ports Authority had not been able to find a single bidder up to their expectations. The customs had valued the sleepers at Rs. 325 each to cover the Port charges and other levies but the highest offer they have received so far had been less than Rs. 200. During the last tender call the highest bid had been only Rs. 100. Up to now they have called tenders on three occasions.

On the request of the shipping line, Mearsk Sealand the Ports authority had taken action to de-stuff the load and release the containers to the shipping company recently and the sleepers are now piled up near the Jeya Container Terminal in the Colombo Port.

The Ports Authority has now decided to request the customs to lower their valuation so as to find a bidder and get rid of these sleepers before they become useless. 

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