Sri Lanka plans to develop Trincomalee port as industrial hub, stirs international curiosity

Sri Lanka’s announcement that it plans to develop Trincomalee as an “industrial harbour” and can quickly float tenders for this might see the economically beleaguered nation put up a few thousand hectares of land on lease to arrange industries in a particular financial zone and the related growth of the strategically positioned port, stirring up geopolitical curiosity in that a part of the Indian Ocean.

“We are actually planning to go for an Expression of Interest (EoI)to develop Trincomalee Port as an industrial port. That means we will be asking not only from one party, but whoever the industrialists are who want to come and utilise the port premises. We have large land, some 2,400 hectares, that surrounds the port of Trincomalee,” Prasantha Jayamanna, chairman of Sri Lanka Ports Authority stated on Tuesday.

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Jayamanna was talking to representatives of transport firms and port employees’ unions to allay issues concerning the slowing down of loading and offloading operations at Colombo Port — a significant regional transhipment hub — resulting from a international trade scarcity that has resulted in gas shortage and affected provide chains.

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The proposal to develop an industrial harbour in Trincomalee is a long-standing plan to monetise land that belongs to the Sri Lanka Port Authority, by getting international and native funding for a particular financial zone, an industrial park, or an power hub.

This would additionally entail the event of the port for non-containerised cargo site visitors, equivalent to cement, coal or different industrial uncooked materials.

“We are planning to call for EoIs soon. We had planned to do this in April, but delayed it till the situation [improved], because we expect a lot of local industries to also come and invest in the port,” Jayamanna stated.

Jayamanna had made comparable remarks in January this 12 months. It is unclear when SLPA will act on its intentions. India, which has already made a considerable funding in Trincomalee, is more likely to have an interest within the proposal each as a industrial mission and as a strategic funding, a supply in Sri Lanka stated.

Earlier this 12 months, Lanka Indian Oil Company, a subsidiary of Indian Oil Company, and Ceylon Petroleum Corporation signed an settlement to develop an enormous oil storage tank farm constructed throughout British rule at Trincomalee. The oil storage facility is positioned on the harbour and has its personal jetty. The two entities have fashioned a particular objective three way partnership referred to as Trinco Petroleum Terminals Ltd for the event of 85 tanks — all in decrepit situation.

Trincomalee already has a number of devoted port terminals — other than the Lanka IOC facility, it has the Tokyo Cement facility, and grain facility for a flour manufacturing unit, and a tea terminal. There can be a jetty for bulk cargo equivalent to coal, gypsum and cement.

Besides India, the event of Trincomalee port has been of curiosity to a number of nations, together with Japan and the US. It supplied not simply one in every of Asia’s most interesting pure harbours, however was additionally seen as a technique to steadiness China’s affect within the nation, and dominate the martime commerce routes within the area by means of its involvement in Colombo port for container site visitors and Hambantota port for cargo. Japan commissioned 2020 ADB research on the event of Trincomalee port.

There have been questions if Sri Lanka wanted multiple port, particularly, as Hambantota, which was developed with Chinese monetary help as a cargo port has not taken off and its operations have remained under projections.

However, the ADB research concluded that Trincomalee harbour, positioned on Sri Lanka’s jap seaboard, with its key advantages of “natural deep water, shelter, unique tourist places and ample land for industrial and logistics in the proximity of the port” was ideally positioned to service the projected progress of maritime cargo commerce within the area, particularly with regard to growth of ports in Bangladesh and Myanmar and on India’s jap sea board.