Dr. Sarath Obeysekera Chief Executive Officer Walkers Colombo Shipyard (Pvt) Ltd.

30th December 2020
Honourable Prime Minister Prime Minister’s Office No: 58, Sir Ernest De Silva Mawatha Colombo 07.

Honourable Sir,

High Handed Action by Ceylon Fishery Harbours Corporation Chairman.
Walkers Colombo Shipyard (Pvt) Ltd. was established in early 2015 with an investment from the Mother Company MTD Walkers PLC to develop and lease the abandoned Mutwal Fishery Harbour for 25 years belonging to Ceylon Fishery Harbours Corporation (CFHC).
After the successful establishment, the shipyard was functioning well with small to medium scale Sri Lankan vessels and foreign vessels coming in for repair services.
In the supplementary agreement signed with CFHC, there was a clause which stated that we are to obtain a fresh valuation from a government valuer to justify the lease payment already agreed upon which was Rs. 125,000 for the land. The new valuation issued on 25th Of February 2016 came to Rs. 1.7 Million which was based on the entire shipyard premises for a land extent of 3 Acres and 1.86 Perch. However, we at the shipyard only utilize 1 Acre and 30.56 Perch.
This error in valuation was appealed and contested by us via multiple meetings and letters. However, CFHC continued to bill us with the erroneous lease amount for which our lawyers advised not to pay. Since then, the outstanding land lease accumulated to Nearly Rs. 70 Million for which CFHC issued a letter of demand and referred the case to the Attorney General’s Department. Despite our constant efforts of requesting to obtain a fresh valuation, to date, CFHC has not made any effort to obtain the correct valuation from the Valuation Department based on the actual land area for over 3 years.
On the 21st of December, the chairman of CFHC forcibly invaded our functioning shipyard in order to show the premises to a prominent businessman with an ulterior motive to hand over the Mutwal project and our shipyard in Trincomalee illegally to this said businessman. We believe that this delay of obtaining a fresh valuation is intentional and is a rouse to constrict our shipyard financially to eventually kick us out and hand over the business to this new businessman.
Therefore we kindly request to look into this matter to advise Ceylon Fishery Harbours Corporation to obtain the fresh valuation from the valuation department and resolve this land lease matter in line with the land area shipyard utilizes and help us continue with our services as the second shipyard of Sri Lanka.
Yours truly, ………………………………………………………… Dr. Sarath Obeysekera Chief Executive Officer Walkers Colombo Shipyard (Pvt) Ltd.
Cc: 1. Hon. Douglas Devananda, Minister of Fisheries