 Action taken to clear: SLPA The Government has already taken steps to clear out the congestion at container terminals due to uncleared cargo. Sri Lanka Port Authority (SLPA) Chairman and former Army Commander Daya Ratnayake told The Morning that there was a large haul of containers uncollected at the Colombo Port and that he had called on the relevant officials to have them cleared. “We reached out to the heads of various organisations including the Business Committee, Chamber of Commerce. We got them down and told them that they must have these containers cleared,” he said. He noted that the backlog of containers had occurred due to a number of factors including the waiving of demurrage charges for a period of one month. “There were issues including the lack of customs officials; there was a drop in over 50% of their numbers. Then the curfews came into place and truck drivers were scared. We also waived demurrage charges for a month in view of the coronavirus outbreak, so that would have also encouraged people to leave their containers uncollected,” Ratnayake added. However, Ratnayake said that action would be taken if containers were cleared within the next two weeks, including charging demurrage. “We will have to call the container owners individually next and ask them to clear the containers. Regardless, demurrage charges were imposed from 14 April onwards,” he said. He went on to say that the operations of the port never ceased. “Ships are coming as usual and there hasn’t been a big reduction. So we have to maintain this. This is the only place where the country is making a buck at this time,” he said.