A US$ 500 million Colombo International Container
Terminal (CICT) in Colombo South Harbour is inaugurated today by the President
Mahinda Rajapaksa. CICT will be the first terminal to come on stream in the
Colombo South Harbour Expansion Project. The construction is scheduled to be
completed in three stages with the first stage is going into operation now, and
full completion planned for April 2014. The
new terminals give a vital foothold on the world’s busiest international
shipping lane as it seeks to secure maritime supply routes. This massive
terminal in Colombo is located mid-way on the lucrative east-west sea route and
has facilities on a par with Singapore and Dubai.
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New Colombo International Container Terminal is going
into operation
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With an envisaged investment of US$ 500 million,
including the installation of the latest state of the art terminal equipment,
it is so far the single largest foreign direct investment in Sri Lanka by a
private entity. The Port of Colombo with a current capacity of over 4 million
teus, has embarked on a large infrastructure development programme to increase
the total capacity of the Port of Colombo by another 7.2 million teus in three
separate phases. The Colombo South Harbour Development which consists of three
independent dedicated container terminals will create this additional capacity
in three different phases of 2.4 million teus in each phase.
The new terminal made economic sense for China to
tap in to the growing South Asian container cargo and gave Beijing a foothold along
a strategic sea route. Chinese involvement in Colombo is a strategic commercial
investment. The Chinese investment in Sri Lanka, which is under pressure from
Western powers and India over its human rights record, has raised fears in New
Delhi about Beijing’s influence in the neighbourhood. Shippers in India could save up to four days
by routing their cargo through Sri Lanka rather than using Singapore or Dubai. India is about five to six years behind Sri
Lanka when it comes to port infrastructure. Sri Lanka has been an important
stop in the ancient Silk Sea Route and today hundreds of ships pass its
southern coast daily while plying the world’s busiest international shipping
lane.
With a capacity of over 18,000 containers, the M.V.
Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller, which was commissioned about two weeks ago is expected
to make up a fleet of 20 mega ships in the next two years plying the East-West
route. The SLPA is pouring millions of dollars into infrastructure around the
island and it is on course to increase container handling
capacity by 1.6 million containers to 6.4 million by April. It hopes to have a
container capacity of 10 million by 2020, while revenue is forecast to triple
to one billion dollars by 2020.
Hambantota, which is just 12 kilometres (7.5 miles)
away from the East-West sea lane, is being promoted as a key service centre and
industrial port where large ships can re-fuel or take on fresh food. In April,
Colombo’s port is due to open another mega terminal just next to the
Chinese-managed CICT. The new addition will initially be able to handle about
800,000 containers a year, according to the SLPA. Chinese loans and expertise were also
instrumental in the construction of a new $450 million deep-sea port at the
southern Sri Lankan city of Hambantota which opened in June 2012.
