{"id":157069,"date":"2026-06-30T16:34:33","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T23:34:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=157069"},"modified":"2026-06-30T16:34:33","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T23:34:33","slug":"closure-of-walkers-colombo-shipyard-a-national-loss-dr-obeysekera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2026\/06\/30\/closure-of-walkers-colombo-shipyard-a-national-loss-dr-obeysekera\/","title":{"rendered":"Closure of Walkers Colombo Shipyard a national loss &#8211; Dr. Obeysekera"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Dr Sarath Obeysekera<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/themorningtelegraph.com\/45808\">https:\/\/themorningtelegraph.com\/45808<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Answer to this post in morning telegraph&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/hirunews.lk\/en\/business\/438866\/closure-of-walkers-colombo-shipyard-a-national-loss-dr-obeysekera\">https:\/\/hirunews.lk\/en\/business\/438866\/closure-of-walkers-colombo-shipyard-a-national-loss-dr-obeysekera<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Closure of Walkers Colombo Shipyard a national loss &#8211; Dr. Obeysekera<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/image-20-1024x576.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-157070\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/image-20-1024x576.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/image-20-300x169.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/image-20-768x432.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/image-20.jpeg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Share Post<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/hirunews.lk\/#facebook\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/hirunews.lk\/#twitter\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/hirunews.lk\/#whatsapp\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/hirunews.lk\/#viber\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/hirunews.lk\/#telegram\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/hirunews.lk\/#facebook_messenger\"><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Walkers Colombo Shipyard (Pvt) Ltd has been closed down and urgent steps should be taken to reopen it, former founding Managing Director Dr Sarath Obeysekera said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He noted that Walkers Colombo Shipyard faced severe financial distress and legal disputes with banks, including Commercial Bank, during the 2019\u20132021 period following loan defaults and restructuring efforts by its parent company, MTD Walkers PLC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These developments created prolonged uncertainty over the shipyard\u2019s operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr, Obeysekera said the Sri Lanka Navy had also intervened in an effort to keep the shipyard operational by entrusting it with lifting and docking naval tugboats, but the arrangement did not continue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Due to mounting financial constraints, the shipyard\u2019s properties were mortgaged to a local bank, which later took over the assets after the company defaulted on a USD 5 million loan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since then, facilities that once generated substantial foreign exchange through ship repairs and a range of maritime services have been left idle and deteriorating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is a major crime, and decisive steps must be taken to reopen the shipyard and restore it to its former glory,\u201d he said, to revive jobs, skills, foreign exchange earnings and national maritime capability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Regards<br><br>Dr Sarath Obeysekera<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dr Sarath Obeysekera https:\/\/themorningtelegraph.com\/45808 Answer to this post in morning telegraph&nbsp; https:\/\/hirunews.lk\/en\/business\/438866\/closure-of-walkers-colombo-shipyard-a-national-loss-dr-obeysekera Closure of Walkers Colombo Shipyard a national loss &#8211; Dr. Obeysekera Share Post Walkers Colombo Shipyard (Pvt) Ltd has been closed down and urgent steps should be taken to reopen it, former founding Managing Director Dr Sarath Obeysekera said. He noted that Walkers [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[116],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-157069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dr-sarath-obeysekera"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157069"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157069\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":157071,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157069\/revisions\/157071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}