Sri Lanka Ports Authority to Invest Rs 1bn on Trinco Port City Development

02nd February 2012, www.dailynews.lk, By Indunil Hewage

Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) will invest approximately Rs one billion for infrastructure development of the Trincomalee Port City Development project in a bid to facilitate prospective investors who have expressed willingness to set up port related new ventures in the Trincomalee port .

SLPA will infuse money to develop roads and electricity facilities in the port area. It was recently disclosed that the government was ready to lease out land at the Trincomalee port to private investors and Cabinet approval has also been granted to this move. The Trincomalee Port City Development project which spreads across more than 500 acres of land will mainly consists of an Industrial Park and a Tourism Zone. However, the main focus of the authorities is to develop the industrial park at the initial stage.

Sri Lanka Ports Authority last month published the project proposal documents to private sector investors who are interested in setting up port related business ventures in the Trincomalee Port Industrial Park. At the moment, around 15 investors have purchased the required documents from SLPA. Interested investors will be able to collect the project proposal documents at the Port Committee Building situated in Fort until April 10, SLPA Planning and Development Chief Engineer Susantha Abesiriwardena told Daily News Business.

Each investor will be allocated five acre of land at the industrial park. However, investors are allowed to subdivide or amalgamate the land according to their preferences. The investors will have to comply with the requirements as requested in the project proposal document to get the SLPA approval to set up business ventures at the Trincomalee port vicinity, a SLPA senior official told the Daily News Business.

While the Oluvil duel purpose harbour being constructed, the Galle harbour too is undergoing transformation and is to be upgraded to a tourism harbour. Many tourism related investment opportunities would be open to investors.

Meanwhile the Hambantota Port project too has gained momentum with over one billion investments being found. Heyleys was the first company to invest in the Magampura Port by laying the foundation stone for a fertilizer processing plant.

In addition aviation sector investors too would have an opportunity to invest at the new Mattala Airport which is scheduled to be opened end of the year.

Related Info :

• Sri Lanka Invites Investments on Trinco Port. Large Tracts of Land in the Eastern Port to be Made Available by March