The Sri Lankan cabinet approved a feasibility study to examine the prospect of building a naval dockyard at the Chinese-built Hambantota port on the south of the island.
Sri Lanka's Minister of Ports Arjuna Ranatunga made the announcement, which will allow him to negotiate with the China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC), who initially put forward the proposal for the building and repair of navy ships.
Hambantota Port was built at a cost of $1.5 billion, financed through a loan from EX-IM Bank of China. Work is currently underway on the second phase of development at the port, at a cost of $808 million. It was built by CHEC, who also won a $1.4 billion contract to construct the Colombo ‘Port City’, a project that has been stalled by the current government.
The port at Hambantota remains vastly underutilised, with unclear accounts of how many ships have actually docked there since its construction. In April, the Sri Lanka Ports Authority was reportedly to be desperately seeking a partner for a joint venture into running bunkering services, in order to bail out the floundering port.
See more here.
Sri Lanka's Minister of Ports Arjuna Ranatunga made the announcement, which will allow him to negotiate with the China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC), who initially put forward the proposal for the building and repair of navy ships.
Hambantota Port was built at a cost of $1.5 billion, financed through a loan from EX-IM Bank of China. Work is currently underway on the second phase of development at the port, at a cost of $808 million. It was built by CHEC, who also won a $1.4 billion contract to construct the Colombo ‘Port City’, a project that has been stalled by the current government.
The port at Hambantota remains vastly underutilised, with unclear accounts of how many ships have actually docked there since its construction. In April, the Sri Lanka Ports Authority was reportedly to be desperately seeking a partner for a joint venture into running bunkering services, in order to bail out the floundering port.
See more here.