The opening ceremony of Colombo Port Southern Container Terminal Project undertaken by CHEC was held on December 16,2011. The ceremony was attended by Mahinda Rajapaksa as the President of Sri Lanka, Yang Xiuping as Chinese Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Chen Yusheng as Vice President of CCCC, Sun Ziyu as Chief Engineer of CCCC and President of CHEC, Tang Qiaoliang as Vice President of CHEC, etc.
Mahinda Rajapaksa declared formal start of Colombo Port Southern Container Terminal Project. This symbolizes formal implementation of Colombo Port Southern Container Terminal Project, which is the largest single foreign-invested project up to date in Sri Lanka.
As pointed out by Ambassador Yang Xiuping, Colombo Port Southern Container Terminal Project is one of the largest foreign-invested projects in Sri Lanka and will play a significant role in economic and social development of Sri Lanka. She sincerely hoped that the Project will be completed at high standard and high quality through concerted efforts of enterprises of China and Sri Lanka, which will make a greater contribution to the friendship between people of both countries.
According to CCCC Vice President Chen Yusheng, implementation of the Project symbolizes friendly cooperation between both countries and will write new chapters in in-depth cooperation between China and Sri Lanka in the field of infrastructure. He said that CCCC would make every effort to support CHEC in participating in the construction of the Project.
The value of the contract is around USD 327 million and the construction period is 28 months. The terminal has total bank line of 1,200m and land area of 58 hectares. The designed throughput is 2.4 million standard containers. This Project is constructed and invested by Colombo Port Southern Container Terminal Company, which is jointly funded by China Merchants Holdings (International) Co. Ltd. of Hong Kong affiliated with China Merchants Group, Sri Lankan Ports Authority and Sri Lankan Aitke Spence. On December 15th, Colombo Port Southern Container Terminal Company and CHEC officially executed the EPC Contract.
After completion, the port can accommodate largest container vessel in the world and further solidify Colombo Port’s position as a transshipment hub in the region of South Asia and make the port the shipping center of South Asia.
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Dredging Today Staff, December 21, 2011; Image: slpa