Provide Rs 3.5 Bn to speed up development of East Terminal – Minister
At a special meeting held under the chairmanship of the Minister of Ports, Shipping and Aviation Nimal Siripala de Silva to review the construction work of two major projects in the Colombo Port the East Container Terminal (ECT) and the Jaya Container Terminal Phase-05 (JCT-05) projects at the Ministry Auditorium, the Minister instructed officials of the Sri Lanka Ports Authority to remove the obstacles to the construction of two Terminals within the specified time frame and provide the same facilities to the contractors.
Also, the minister also informed that the contractors should complete the construction works of those terminals as agreed within the specified time limits. According to this, the construction works of JCT 05 phase should be completed by the end of the year 2023 and accordingly, the problematic situation that occurs in providing berthing facilities at the edge of the terminal for longer ships will be avoided and the port authority officials pointed out.
In order to speed up the work of the ECT terminal, it has considered the request made by its contract company to provide the money due to them immediately and legally certified the relevant bills and received the due payments.
The minister instructed to pay the amount of USD 6.1 million US and Rs 1 billion on January 26 if the relevant company has taken action. Also, the minister emphasized that the remaining amount of 1.667 billion rupees should be paid within 3 weeks (with taxes) and by that the construction work of the ECT terminal should be expedited.
Accordingly, the Minister advised the officials of the Sri Lanka Port Authority to strengthen the cash reserve of the Sri Lanka Ports Authority and give priority to the development activities of the ECT terminal while spending that money. On this occasion, the Secretary of the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Aviation K.D.S. Ruwanchandra, Additional Secretary Nayana Somaratne, Sri Lanka Ports Authority Vice Chairman Gayan Alagiyawattage, Managing Director Susantha Abeysiriwardena, Chief Legal Officer Aparna Thilakaratne were present.