Giving impetus to the socio-economic development process of future Sri Lanka and fulfi lling the

objectives of the development of port sector in the country as been identifi ed in ‘Mahinda Chintaha-na,’ phase one of Hambantota Port Development Project will come into completion on August 15, 2010 with the fi lling of its basin with sea water. The historic ceremony that will be held with the initiative of President Mahinda Rajapaksa will be attended by a large number of distinguished guests of both local and foreign authorities.

Hambantota Port Development Project was initiated a few years ago following studies to assess the viability of constructing a port for overall maritime activities in the area. Initially M/s SNC Lavalin In-ternational of Canada undertook a preliminary study in 2003. In the year 2005, preparation of the mas-ter plan for Hambantota port proj-ect was completed by M/s Ramboll of Denmark.

Nearly 85% of Hambantota proj-ect is fi nanced by the Government of China on a loan agreement signed between the two countries, as such construction works were undertaken by a Chinese consor-tium namely, M/S China Harbour Engineering Company & Sinohy-dro Corporation Joint Venture. The total project cost will be US$ 361 million. The entire port belongs to the Government of Sri Lanka and all operations will be handled by Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA).

A fully-fl edged bunkering facil-ity and a Tank Farm project will also be constructed at Hambantota port with 14 tanks with an expen-diture of US$ 76, 581,774. Eight tanks out of the 14 will be utilised for bunkering while the other six will be utilised as three each for aviation fuel and LPG tanks. The 14 tanks will offer a total capacity of 80,000m3. China Huanqiu Con-tracting and Engineering Corpora-tion works as the contractor of the project.

Port of Hambantota was initially planned as a services and indus-

trial port and subsequently with the objective of de-veloping it transshipment port depending on the in-crease in cargo volumes.

Initially, Hambantota be-ing one of the poorest re-gions in Sri Lanka and as such the construction of a port at Hambantota will be an important catalyst for a major economic develop-ment in the region as well as the country.

Project rationaleThe location of the pro-

posed Hambantota port is supported by the following consideration.

(i) Hambantota is within 10 nautical miles of the world’s busiest shipping lane. It is ide-ally located directly at the intersection of ma-jor international sea trading routes. Over 100 ships bypass Sri Lanka daily during the voyage between Europe and the Far East, necessitating the carrying of a large quantity of fuel and supplies for the jour-ney, which could be replaced by cargo if servicing is provid-ed midway at Hambantota.

(ii) As a Greenfi eld site, Hamban-tota possesses a signifi cant advantage in that it can be planned without any restric-tion to achieve high port per-formance and productivity.

(iii) The natural depth along the coastline is ideally suited for the development of a deep-water port. The approach to the port does not necessitate a long dredged channel.

(iv) As a strategically situated maritime gateway to India (for transshipment container car-go), Hambantota is very well-positioned. It is better located than any Indian port to act as a transshipment centre, because of equi-distance to, and ability to serve both, the East and the West coasts of India as well as Myanmar, Bangladesh, Paki-

stan, and smaller countries such as the Maldives.

(v) Hambantota enjoys a very good geographic location to serve domestic trade, with di-rect roadway connection to the Southern, Central and East-ern areas of the island. In this respect, it is better located to serve the Southern half of the island than Galle, and it enjoys a unique location in the South-ern Region for the ability to link to the Central and Eastern provinces by road. These con-nections are not currently in good condition and would have to be improved for the port to develop as an important domes-tic trade centre. Hambantota is quite distant from Colombo and therefore would function best as an independent rather than an overfl ow port.

(vi) Hambantota possesses exten-sive land area for expansion and labour-related activities such as port related industries, warehousing and servicing. This is a unique feature that provides a distinct advantage over the other ports.

(vii) The proposed port will stimu-late the development of har-

bour-related industries such as ship repair, shipbuilding, bunkering, break bulk, oil re-fi nery, power generation plant, and a free trade zone etc.

(viii) The immediate vicinity of Hambantota has a low popula-tion density and minimally de-veloped agriculture, which will allow growth of the port centre to occur relatively unimpeded by pre-existing constraints or land-use competition.

(ix) Considering weather condi-tions, Hambantota is not sub-ject to the cyclonic activities that periodically affect the Bay of Bengal and the North-East-ern coast of Sri Lanka, and it does not experience the full

force of the South-West monsoon.

(x) It is hoped that constructing the new port in Hambantota will be cost-effective com-pared to other potential locations. This is due to two factors; the relatively favourable geotechnical conditions and the poten-tial for constructing in the dry zone.

Proposed services of the port

In view of the deeper berths and location ad-vantages at Hambantota, it may be possible to at-tract most of the port related industries such as Cement, Fertiliser etc. Since the maximum draft at Colombo is limited to 10m for general cargo ves-

sels, manufactures may invest at Hambantota to get the advantage of “economies of scale.”

Port basin could be used for the services vessels of bunkering facil-ity and for larger fi shing vessels.

Since the major shipping route is very close by, offshore services such as ship channelling, supply of water, supply of fuel, crew changes etc could be undertaken from this proposed port.

Supplies for coal power genera-tion, transshipment of vehicles etc., could also be undertaken.

The wave climate in the project area is infl uenced by two distinct wave systems; swells from the Indi-an Ocean and sea waves generated by local winds. The swells come constantly from south all year around while the waves approach to the site from southwest in SW monsoon season and the SW sea waves are dominated strong.

Present positionThe most important fact of this

project is the completion of all pre-liminary activities within very a short time with the participation of local experts. Preliminary studies, data collection, Feasibility Studies,

Environmental Impact Assessment and Detailed Engineering Designs etc were completed within a very short time.

Based on the engineering de-signs, a Chinese Joint Venture Construction company, which was nominated by the Government of China, submitted on offer for the construction of phase 1 including all infrastructure facilities, build-ings, plants and equipment etc, and after negotiations the contract was awarded to the same Join Venture.

Government of China has agreed to fund this project and as per the contract the total cost estimate for the phase 1 of the project is US$ 360 million.

The main construction work of the phase I was offi cially com-menced on January 15, 2008 and the project duration was scheduled for 39 months. The project is planned to be completed on April 15, 2011.

Brief summary of the project features

The main construction work in-cludes, construction of two break-waters, excavation of the 17m depth basin area, dredging of 210m wide entrance channel, construc-tion of a service berth, a general purpose berth, an oil berth, roads and buildings.

HAMBANTOTAANCHORED

NationThe

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT

MAIN PORT PARAMETERS (PHASE 1)� Design Vessel 100,000 DWT� Approach Channel Width 210m� Approach Channel Depth 16m� Turning Circle 600m� Quay Length(General Cargo) 600m� Service Quay 105m� Oil Quay 310m� Depth of Basin 17m

ACTIVITIES TARGETED FOR THE PERIOD

PRESENT PROGRESS Construction Preparation Completed

Cofferdam Construction Completed

Chinespode Precast 100%

General Purpose Berth Construction 99%

Service Berth Construction 100%

Oil Berth Construction 75%

Breakwater Construction 92%

Revetment Construction 60%

Administration Building 19%

Roads and Yards construction 59%

Basin Excavation 95%

Channel Dredging 50%

Land Acquisition Phase I 99%

Land Acquisition Phase II In progress

Hambantota Port fills its basin today

Sunday August 15, 2010

Printed and published by Rivira Media Corporation (Pvt) Ltd. on Sunday August 15, 2010 at 249/2, Sri Saddharma Mawatha, Maligawatta, Colombo 10.

It is with great pleasure that I pen this message on this

historic milestone event of the Hambantota Port Construc-tion Project where the South-ern Sea makes the beginning to ardently hug the newly constructed 17m-deep inland harbour basin.

Today, the har-bour embraces her fi rst infl ow of wa-ters culminating the fi rst phase of the country’s fore-most port construc-tion project. The currents of water that fl ows in today mark the dawn of a new era, promising greater heights and opening up whole new vistas for all Sri Lankans. Since, the Port is built close to one of the worlds major shipping lanes, the shipping industry in the country will fl ourish with the possibility of generating entrepôt businesses, expand-

ing and diversifying port re-lated industries in and around Hambantota.

The port, being built at a cost of US$ 437 million for the fi rst phase is a joint venture be-

tween China Harbour Engineering and Syno Hydro Corpora-tion with Sri Lanka Ports Authority hav-ing a stake of 15% of the total investment.

The Sri Lanka Ports Authority celebrated its 31st Anniversary on August 1, 2010 af-ter its formation in 1979. If we walk down memory lane and hark back to the an-nals of port history, we can see that the Port Development ac-tivities in Sri Lanka can be compartmen-

talised into several eras. Until recently, almost all the develop-ment work centred round the Port of Colombo.

The fi rst development era which spans from 1875 to 1912

saw most of the infrastruc-ture development work such as breakwaters and dredging of the harbour area to nine metres etc,. The superiority of Colombo over Galle as a com-mercial port came about in the 1880s when more ships began to use Colombo. Prior to 1885, Port of Galle had been the principal port of the island.

The second development era, which covers from 1950 to 1956, saw a major port development scheme undertaken by the then Ceylon in the early years of in-dependence. Queen Elizabeth Quay, Delft Quay, Prince Vijaya Quay, North Pier and South Pier were constructed in this period. The third development era which lasted from 1983 to 2002 saw the development of Jaya Container Terminal (JCT) stages from I to IV, Port Access Road, New Oil Termi-nal with oil pipelines, expan-sion of the Unity Container Terminal, commencement of the South Asia Gateway Ter-minals (SAGT) under a BOOT agreement and the deepening

of the main access channel to 15m which was a grave neces-sity at that time in order to handle post-panamax vessels.

The forth development era which commenced in about 2005, and we still continue to be in, marked the dawn of a golden era for the port indus-try in Sri Lanka. Buoyed by the passing of 2m TEU mark in 2004 and the cargo forecast done by Scott Wilson of the UK a few years before, which stated in their analysis that the potential for container cargo at the Port of Colombo is tremen-dous and that the port would be reaching its maximum capaci-ty of around 4.5 million in 2012, SLPA made a decision to build capacities outside the Port of Colombo. By about 2007, SLPA had formulated three mega de-velopment projects namely, the Colombo Port Expansion Proj-ect (Colombo South Harbour), Hambantota Port Project and the Oluvil Port Development Project in addition to the im-provement plans for Galle and Trincomalee Ports.

But unfortunately, to the dis-appointment of all of us, the world economic crisis in 2008 which was triggered by a li-quidity shortfall in the United States banking system caused by the overvaluation of assets affected the global shipping and logistics industry. It result-ed in the collapse of large fi -nancial institutions and down-turns in stock markets around the world and it was consid-ered by many economists to be the worst fi nancial crisis since the Great Depression in the 1930s. The ripple effect of this downturn was not felt, to such a severe extent by us, but the neighbouring regional ports and shipping lines felt.

The SLPA also was pushed to a terrible predicament un-der the sway of the global eco-nomic downturn with all the projects at hand and was in a dilemma whether to go ahead with the projects or not. It was at this juncture that President Mahinda Rajapaksa intervened and instructed all of us to car-ry on spending our monies on

port building and infrastruc-ture development because as he said it was the ideal time to do so then as the freight was less, cost of materials was low and we could get lower bids etc,. We felt refreshed and in-vigorated by His Excellency’s words and the then Minister of Ports and Aviation, Cha-mal Rajapaksa, Secretary to the Ministry, the Chairman SLPA, and the SLPA manage-ment team sat together and completed our plans and went ahead with our projects.

I take my hat off to His Ex-cellency because it was His Ex-cellency’s bold decision taken at that time that has brought SLPA to where it is now with three mega development proj-ects with an investment to the tune of US$ 1.5 billion.

The Phase 1 of the Colombo South Harbour which gives an additional 2.4 million TEU ca-pacity will too be ready by early 2013, thus ensuring Sri Lanka, of the South Asian Container Hub status.

And, today we witness the completion of the phase 1 of the Hambantota Port Project and I am totally confi dent that the Port of Hambantota would be the tallest venture for the fu-

ture maritime trade in Sri Lan-ka. The port is gearing up to embrace a massive investment plan worth billions of rupees as the government prepares to call proposals for business ventures that could be undertaken with the fi rst phase of the project.

Cabinet approval has already been given for the appoint-ment of a Project Committee and a Cabinet Appointed Ne-gotiating Committee to call for proposals for Public Pri-vate Partnerships for a host of business ventures that have been earmarked for imple-mentation with the comple-tion of the phase 1. With these ventures, the infrastructure and other facilities in and around Hambantota will be improved and the resulting boom in the shipping industry with the construction of the port will be able to play a piv-otal role towards the economic development of Sri Lanka. The fi rst commercial ship is scheduled to arrive at the Port of Hambantota by November this year.

Let the Port of Hambantota richly deserve the admiration to be considered one of the man-made marvels of the 21st Century.

A MAN-MADE WONDER OF THE WORLD

After the end of 30-year terrorist war, Sri Lanka is now on a path to devel-

oping the country into a major fi nancial and services hub, connecting the Indian subcontinent with the East and the West.

The opportunities for the country to be-come a centre of maritime activity seem to be growing day by day as the global economic activities are increasingly moving towards Asia with trade infl ows and outfl ows growing rapidly as regional giants China and India are emerging as major economies of the world.

Over the last two and half decades, Sri Lanka has been recognised by the international shipping community as a transshipment hub in South Asia, main-ly through its container services via the port of Colombo. However, the period from early 90s to 2006, the port sector in Sri Lanka was sluggish in its growth and little policy directions were implemented to take the country towards becoming a major maritime hub.

Many in the shipping in-dustry as well as non-indus-try personalities and the public at large have little un-derstanding of the role of the maritime sector, which is one of the major facilitators in the global supply chain. Some of the common questions that I have encountered in respect to port sector in Sri Lanka are as follows:

Why Hambantota?It is often questioned, why

Hambantota instead of Trin-comalee, which is considered as a natu-ral deep draft port. It is a well-known factor in the shipping and logistics in-dustry that in the modern context, speed is a new tool for competitiveness. For a shipping line, diverting a ship is a costly affair, and business decisions could re-volve around such costs to call a port or bypass it.

Hambantota being on the edge of the ancient ‘ocean silk road,’ which is today the international shipping route for East-West cargo movement, is an ideal location to service hundreds of ships as the diversion time is minimal. At the same time, the economically poorer re-gion has enough land resources towards the hinterland for port related activities that would attract many logistics and re-lated services to come and anchor them-selves to service the maritime sector.

With the development of the Hamban-tota Port it will be just a matter of time that new businesses relating to the ship-ping industry will move to Sri Lanka. This will include ship bunkering, ship supplies, ship repairs and related sup-port services whilst providing a good stopover facility for the cruise shipping industry where Sri Lanka would be a hot spot for tourism.

Why Hambantota and Colombo?

Many also question, why embark on investing and developing two ma-jor ports, namely Hambantota and

Colombo South harbour at the same time which is costing a huge invest-ment to the government coffers. In-deed the decision to embark on mul-tiple projects is the correct decision. The shipping industry consists of vast areas of expertise and services and need different facilities to han-dle different types of ships.

Over the last one and half decades Sri Lanka has been missing many opportunities in the port sector, as timely decisions have not been made to add capacity with new infrastruc-ture to handle the ever-increasing and evolving demands of the indus-try whilst many Asian ports have moved ahead. As a result, a consider-able amount of businesses moved to regional ports.

The majority of ocean shipping ac-tivities take place in types of ships that are tankers, bulk carriers, car carri-ers, general cargo ships, passenger ships etc. As a transshipment hub, Sri Lanka did not have the facilities to service non-containerised ships as necessary capacity and infrastructure was not available. Indeed it was a prudent decision to in-vest on Colombo South harbour to expand con-tainerised cargo handling capacity to meet the re-gional demands and at the same time plan out and execute a mega port

in the southern city of Hambantota to capture new market segments of the shipping industry.

Given the development plans and the infrastructure created, Sri Lanka would be gearing itself as a country that could provide services to any type of ship without any restrictions over the coming years. The development of the maritime sector will not only cre-ate large amount of employment oppor-tunities, but would be a steppingstone to become the logistics hub of South Asia and the gateway to India.

Citizens of Sri Lanka would certain-ly reap the benefi ts of these projects in the coming years, and the govern-ment’s effort to eradicate poverty and to increase the standard of living will be supported by working towards the goal of becoming a maritime, aviation and logistics hub. The challenge to Sri Lanka would be to have the necessary human resources to manage these in-frastructure projects effi ciently and effectively.

Whilst appreciating the hard work done by SLPA a word of caution is im-portant, as at the end of the day busi-nesses would look for excellence and would decide to position investments in countries where the environment is conducive for business with cost effectiveness combined with effi cien-cy. If Hambantota port offers service excellence it could surely be a global giant in port business.

The mega development projects that have been launched aim-

ing at a greater socio-economic boom in Sri Lanka have resulted in turning the prevailing social structure of the country towards an innovative developmental rev-olution.

Upon the competitive global challenges met in the process, new tendencies have been awak-en for the citizens of the country, in return, to think innovatively to shoulder the co-operate responsi-bilities to strengthen the future economic developmental process of Sri Lanka.

Among the mega development process to expand and newly construct the ports of Sri Lanka, Hambantota has become a key ini-tiative that has been given prior-ity by the present government to expedite the economic process of the country. Following the foot steps of ‘Mahinda Chinthana’ of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Sri Lanka Ports Authority has been rightly directed at present, to maximise all the strengths and capacities to effi ciently work towards the devel-opment of the Hamban-tota Harbour. The accu-rate guidance extended by the former Minister of Ports, Aviation, Irri-gation and Water Man-agement Chamal Raja-paksa during the most decisive periods of the project became a key reason to reach its successful targets.

As a country moves along its course of socio-economic devel-opment, traditions that stand alone against such developments should be accurately addressed and rightly changed. The role of mass media in this regard plays a major part, to responsibly han-dle the masses, who are eager to know of the future wellbeing of their motherland. Amidst the competitive transmissions of glo-balisation, mass media also have to play the right news at the most accurate time to offer the fi rst-hand information to the commu-nities they serve, with the objec-tive of creating a strong informed majority, at the same time luring the masses to actively participate in the country’s development pro-cess in their able capacities.

Deviating from a long-stood news reporting of war-torn situ-ations, it is commendable to see that the local mass media have taken Hambantota Port project as its fi rst choice of development communication to fulfi l the above objective. The contribution of both print and electronic media of the country was a strong force in this regard, for the authorities, to keep Hambantota Port project

successive in its most essential initiations and implementations.

Another important factor no-ticed in this regard was the re-sponses and feedbacks of the lo-cal media to defeat various false propaganda campaigns launched with the Western infl uences and Western interests to destroy the emerging development strate-gies of Sri Lanka. It was often noticed that the features and the reactions of local media was so strong in capturing the attention of the masses who were curious to gain fi rsthand information on this mega development project of Hambantota Port.

On the other hand the positive image, presented by the local media on Hambantota Port De-velopment Project was an over-all assistance in awakening the

regional community of the Southern Sri Lanka to contribute their best for this mega project, being constructed as a stra-tegic centre of impor-tance not only for the socio-economic devel-opment of Sri Lanka but also for the devel-opment of the entire South Asian region.

The timely proce-dures taken by the lo-cal media to point out various important factors pertaining to the project is equally appreciative. It was

a moving force that assisted to carry the project to its successive junctures. The enthusiasm of the local journalist to report on Hambantota Port Project hence was a timely mediation received from a responsible sector that ca-ter around the clock, towards the wellbeing of every citizen of this country.

The long-term experience and the correct understanding the Chairman of Sri Lanka Ports Au-thority as the Chief Executive Of-fi cer of the entire project posses on local media was a strongly felt advantage, that should be high-lighted, to work hand in hand and closer coordination with the local media from an institutional sub department that handle all com-munication and public relations with the out side parties.

Sri Lanka Ports Authority here onwards initiates another chain of activities, at Hambantota Port project with the successful launch of ‘Karadiyawara Mangalyaya’ – the sea water fi lling ceremony into the basin of Hambantota Harbour today, at the premises of Hambantota Port project. It is the beginning of an era that we nec-essarily need further assistance of the local media to make the dreams of tomorrow of the citi-zens of this country, come true.

STEERING SRI LANKATOWARDS THE RIGHT DIRECTION

THE SERVICE RENDERED BY MASS MEDIA FOR THE PROJECT IS COMMENDABLE

The Nation SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT Sunday August 15, 2010

2010: Finishing touches

(Pix courtesy: Pushpakumara Matugama, Chathura S. Kodikara and Sri Lanka Ports Authority)

By Rohan Masakorala, Secretary General – Asian Shippers’ Council

By Nalin Aponso, Deputy Chief Manager, Communication and Public Relations Division, Sri Lanka Ports Authority

By Capt. Nihal Keppetipola, Managing Director, Sri Lanka Ports Authority

2009: Building the tank farm

2007: Begining of the project

2007: Clearing the location

2007: Work in progress

2 THE NATION, Sunday August 15, 2010 3SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTAn

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