Government of Sri Lanka has identified Colombo Port Expansion Project (CPEP) to cater to the increasing demands of services in the international shipping industry.
The project consists of two phases such as construction of breakwaters, dredging for new harbour basin and navigation channel and rerouting of crude oil pipe line. The other component includes construction of Terminals and other related services.
The first terminal of the CPEP, Colombo International Container Terminal (CICT) was constructed on a Built Own Transfer (BOT) agreement with a Public-Private-Partnership between the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) and the China Merchants Holdings (CMHI). The CPEP, with a total annual container throughput of 7.2 million TEUs and a monumental breakwater of 6.8 km, augmented container handling capacity with facilities to serve mega ships was bestowed upon the nation by President Mahinda Rajapaksa, in August 5, 2013.
The construction of Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) owned single berth of the CPEP, known as the East Container Terminal (ECT), and with the completion of its Phase I soon, it is expected to cater the shortfall in the capacity of container handling in the Port of Colombo.
The quay wall of the ECT, with water depth of 18m, is designed to accommodate container vessels of 230,000 DWT with dimensions of 400m long and 24 boxes wide. The quay is designed to support a 65Ton Ship to Shore crane (STS), a 30 meter rail span, a back reach area and roads.
By the end of the 2nd Quarter, the physical progress on the constructions of the terminal reached 43.2% and the Financial Progress as per work done by the end of April this year reached 34%. Completion of the works is scheduled for December 2014.
The Colombo Port Expansion Project Harbour infrastructure works was initiated with a total estimated construction cost of $330 million.
The Asian Development Bank and Sri Lanka Ports Authority jointly finance the project, with ADB financing $300 million or 81.7% of the total cost and remaining 18.3% will be financed by SLPA.
[mappress]
Source: slpa, July 25, 2014