Sri Lanka Wants a Partner for Remaining ECT Stake

Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) is looking for a shipping company or a terminal operator to take over 49% of the remaining shares in its East Container Terminal (ECT) in Colombo.

Sri Lanka’s Ports and Shipping Minister Arjuna Ranatunga revealed that the authority is launching a Request for Proposals (RFP) to continue the project in a more transparent manner, following the Cabinet of Ministers’ approval to go ahead with the ECT development project.

The Cabinet also approved the proposal to make Asian Development Bank (ADB) as the financial consultant to the project.

The ECT is the second biggest deepwater development project in Colombo harbour and the SLPA holds 51% of shares of it.

The project will have a land area of 1,200 square metres upon completion and currently stands at 400 sq.m. have been completed under the project.

The Colombo Port Expansion Project is situated west to the existing port of Colombo comprising an area of approximately 600 hectares.  The new harbour has 3 terminals each having 1,200m length and facilities to accommodate 3 berths alongside.  The small boat harbour at the end of secondary breakwater has 400m length of quay wall. 

Under the project, the Port of Colombo which had a capacity about 4.5 million TEUs, will have its total capacity increased by another 7.2 million TEUs in two separate phases.