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By Channa Kasturisinghe

The Government will seek more private sector investment in the Colombo South Port Development Project in a bid to expedite the construction of the new Port, which would enable Colombo to maintain its position as the hub port in the South Asian region.

Port Development and Shipping Minister Rauf Hakeem has instructed senior officials of the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) to give priority to the project in order to cater to larger vessels which are expected to enter into service in the near future.

The Ministry is planning to select an international consultancy firm to carry out detail design and engineering study on the project by December this year. The estimated cost of detail design and engineering study is 14 million US dollars. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has already provided 10 million US dollars under its Technical Assistance Loan Agreement to implement it.

"Once the detail design and engineering study is completed we will be able to estimate the total cost of the project and raise funds with the assistance of private investors," a senior Ministry official told the Daily News yesterday.

"Subsequent to the engineering study the construction of the breakwater and dredging will be carried out. The final stage will be the construction and operation of the terminals which would be carried out with private sector participation," he said.

He said the projection of growth in international trade in the region showed that the Colombo Port had the potential for rapid growth and to exploit that potential the Colombo Port should be expanded further.

M/S Munsell Mclntyre Pvt. Ltd. of Australia carried out the feasibility study of the project and submitted the final report to the SLPA in March this year. The ADB provided 1.4 million US dollars for the feasibility study, which commenced in March 2001. Consultants of the Australian also reported to the Minister that speedy implementation of the project would be a financially viable exercise.

"The entrance channel of the new Colombo South Port will be 17 metres deep which would allow larger vessels to enter the port. There is the potential for increasing the depth up to 23 metres to cater to even larger vessels if needed in the future," the official said.

The new Port will consist of 12 container births with a capacity of accommodating over 10 million TEUs per year. The Colombo Port at present has six berths operated by JCT and SAGT. Another berth is under construction by the SAGT.

Vessels such as Super Post Panamax with the capacity of carrying over 6,000 containers now enter the port. However, the new Port will be built in order to cater to much larger vessels shipbuilders are planning to build in the future.

Meanwhile, the 14.4 million US dollar Port Efficiency Improvement and Port Expansion project under the ADB's technical Assistance program is now in progress.

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Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
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