Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2021-07-26

Investment of South Asia Logistics Center in the Port of Colombo

- One of the strategic objectives of the National Ports Master Plan is to develop the Colombo Port, being the main hub port in the South Asian region, as a logistic hub. Under this, the areas of Battenberg and Bloemendhal belonging to the Colombo South Port have been identified as those which may be developed as logistic business areas under the Public Private Partnership. And, the Unity Container Terminal (UCT) has been recognized as appropriate to construct the in house Container Freight Station (CFS) of Sri Lanka Ports Authority with logistic facilities. It has been planned to commence partial operational activities of the East Container Terminal (ECT) and West Container Terminal (WCT) in 2023 and accordingly, the throughput of Colombo Port will exceed 10 million TEU per annum. Within this situation, the necessity of constructing a logistic centre expeditiously, has arisen and the Colombo International Container Terminal (CICT) has submitted an investment proposal for the purpose. As such, the proposal made by the Minister of Ports & Shipping, to appoint a negotiation committee to evaluate the proposal submitted by the Company for the implementation of a project for construction of a logistic centre in a block of land nearly in extent of 5.3 hectares in the area of Battenberg of Colombo South Port adjacent to the South Asia Gateway Terminal (SAGT), Colombo International Container Terminal (CICT) and the East Container Terminal (ECT) under the Public Private Partnership and pursue action as per the recommendations of the said Committee, was approved by the Cabinet.