Ports Authority chief Dr. Priyath Bandu Wickrama on Tuesday blamed vessels bypassing Colombo on inefficiency of some of his predecessors to construct a deep draught at the Port of Colombo. Speaking as a special guest during the meeting of the Import Section of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, he said that vessels are today bypassing Colombo due to the inability of the port of Colombo to accommodate vessels with a capacity of more than 10, 000 TEUs (Twenty-Equivalent Units).
He pointed out that had timely action been taken “we should have had a deep draught berth” without simply criticizing the current system.
Dr. Wickrama noted that some of his predecessors had not taken relevant steps to initiate for deep draught berths among other factors in order to accommodate mega container ships.
He observed that vessels like Maersk are now ordering 20 -18,000 TEU ships for which Sri Lanka is still not ready to accommodate.
This has resulted in Sri Lanka “facing vessels bypassing Colombo today,” he said adding that however, the port is now carrying out improvements to meet present day requirements.
Speaking on the sidelines of the meeting he told the Business Times that in addition to Maersk, MSC and a few other vessels are currently bypassing the Port of Colombo.
Dr. Wickrama explained that if this situation should continue by 2013 there would be many more vessels bypassing the Port of Colombo. |
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