PRIORITY TO INDIA WHEN EVALUATING BIDS

India will be given priority when bids to develop the West Container Terminal (WCT) of the Port of Colombo are evaluated no sooner international tenders are called to develop the WCT as a joint venture, Ports and Shipping Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe said.

I went through the MOU word by word and there was no mention in the MOU that indicates a foreign collaboration to develop ECT.

He said the MOU signed between Sri Lanka and India did not contain a word on the ECT and therefore the issue of a joint venture with India to develop it did not arise.

“I went through the MOU word by word and there was no mention in the MOU that indicates a foreign collaboration to develop ECT.THE government has decided to develop the ECT as a fully-funded project by the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA), ”THE minister said. He said the government was planning a major capacity expansion up to 9.6 million TEU by the end of this year, from the current 7.2 million TEU as it transforms into a major global transshipment hub

“The Colombo International Container Terminal (CICT) is Sri Lanka’s first deep water container terminal and has a total handling capacity of 2.4 million TEU. In addition, there are two shallow water terminals at Colombo port, each 15 metres in depth with berthing capacity of 3.4 million TEUS and 1.4 million TEUS. But this capacity is not sufficient to meet the current demands for port facilities and take extra large ships and container carriers. that is why we develop ECT as a deep water container terminal,” the minister said.

He said the ECT, with some 400 metres of berths have already been developed by the SLPA at a cost of US$80 million or Rs.13.6 billion and another US$80 million was required to develop remaining 800 metres making the ECT one of the largest and deepest container terminals in Asia accommodating three extra large ships, container carriers or tankers.