Commercial and fisheries harbours:

Oluvil Port construction in full steam

Dharma Sri Abeyratne

Under the Government initiatives to set up a modern port system in the country, many ports are being constructed throughout the coastal belt.

Oluvil Port is being constructed with the aim of getting maximum contribution from the port system to the development of the country.

The Danish Government has given Euro 42 million for the Oluvil Port project which commenced on June 20, 2008 scheduled to be commissioned by June next year. It consists of two sections - a commercial harbour and the small craft (fishery) harbour.

The commercial harbour is eight meters in depth while the fisheries harbour is three meters in depth.

The commercial harbour comes with all other harbour related institutions and buildings such as warehouses, police station, generator and transformer building, communication centres, fuel storages while the fisheries harbour consists of ice plants, cold room facilities, storage facilities for fishing equipments and many more.

A lighthouse for the Oluvil harbour has already been constructed for the benefit of both commercial and fishing crafts.

The commercial harbour would have enough depth to handle ships up to 5,000 metric tonnes and the fisheries harbour could hold more than 250 fishing boats simultaneously.

”The construction of the buildings at small craft harbour is in good progress and has reached near completion. Column work is ongoing at the main gate for the police station, generator and transformer buildings.

The jetties are being constructed and sand has to be pumped out from the sea bed. The two water breakers have already completed,” Project Manager Hans Jorgen Kallehauge said.