{"id":61745,"date":"2016-12-23T05:36:33","date_gmt":"2016-12-23T12:36:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=61745"},"modified":"2016-12-23T05:37:28","modified_gmt":"2016-12-23T12:37:28","slug":"fifth-container-terminal-to-india-colombo-port-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2016\/12\/23\/fifth-container-terminal-to-india-colombo-port-development\/","title":{"rendered":"Fifth container terminal to India  Colombo Port development"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em><span class=\"article_date\">By Shamindra Ferdinando\u00a0Courtesy The Island<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span class=\"article_date\">December 22, 2016, 10:19 pm<\/span><br \/>\nIn the wake of a simmering controversy over China Merchant Port Holdings being given an 80 per cent stake in the Hambantota port, a fresh dispute is brewing at the Colombo Port regarding a move to involve India in the development of the East Container Terminal (ECT).<\/p>\n<p>The SLPA has announced that it was planning to award the ECT on Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) basis. Well informed sources told\u00a0The Island\u00a0that the government was planning to privatise the ECT.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.island.lk\/modules\/modPublication\/article_title_images\/1576399625DI-P01-23-12-(R)-pdc--FINAL_Layout-1-19.jpg\" alt=\"article_image\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Addressing the media at the Centre for Society and Religion (CSR) at Maradana,\u00a0Purawesi Balaya\u00a0spokesperson Saman Ratnapriya claimed that they had been briefed by port workers of the move.<\/p>\n<p>The ECT in its present form has 440-metre long breakwater and an 18-metre approach depth, a 20 hectare yard area and connected facilities developed by the SLPA.<\/p>\n<p>Ratnapriya said that the SLPA had obtained USD 350 mn loan from the Asian Development Bank for the project.<\/p>\n<p>The trade union activist urged the government to explore ways and means of retaining its ownership while managing the facility with suitable partner. According to Ratnapriya handing over the terminal to a private party wouldn\u2019t help Sri Lanka\u2019s efforts to raise state revenue.<\/p>\n<p>The SLPA has estimated that acquisition of gantry cranes for the ECT would cost USD 68 mn. Ratnapriya said that it would be a grave mistake on the part of the\u00a0government to give up the ECT.<\/p>\n<p>There are four container terminals in the Colombo Port, with two terminals (Jaya and Unity) operated by SLPA and the other two (SAGT and Chinese CICT) developed and operated by private terminal operators on BOT concessions.<\/p>\n<p>China Merchant Port Holdings which owned 85 per cent of CICT recently secured 80 per cent share of the Hambantota port in accordance with 99-year lease. While SAGT or South Asia Gateway Terminals, a consortium of local and international industry players reached agreement with Sri Lanka in September 1999 on a 30-year BOT operation, whereas CICT operated on a 35-year BOT project.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Shamindra Ferdinando\u00a0Courtesy The Island December 22, 2016, 10:19 pm In the wake of a simmering controversy over China Merchant Port Holdings being given an 80 per cent stake in the Hambantota port, a fresh dispute is brewing at the Colombo Port regarding a move to involve India in the development of the East Container [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,102,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","category-economy","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61745","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=61745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61745\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}