By Skandha Gunasekara It is commonplace in Sri Lanka nowadays to hear of mega development projects being implemented but hardly being used for their original purposes. So no one would be shocked of being apprised of a Rs. 400 million-plus, state-of-the-art fish processing plant in the eastern coast that has been wasting away for the past seven years (and counting). The fish processing plant in Oluvil was built as part of the Oluvil Port Development Project, which includes a commercial harbour as well as a fisheries harbour. The Oluvil Harbour project was first initiated in 1994, during the time of the Chandrika Kumaratunga Government, by then Minister of Ports Development, Rehabilitation, and Reconstruction late M.H.M. Ashraff. Accordingly, a study on the project’s feasibility and practicality was carried out, and the study had concluded the project to be technically feasible but financially non-viable. Construction of the plant However, there had been a resurgence in the interest of building the harbour during the Mahinda Rajapaksa Government; in 2008, the then Government had been able to secure a loan from the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA), a branch of the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs which provides humanitarian aid and development assistance to other countries. The fisheries harbour and the fish processing plant were also built along with the Port. Secretary to the Ministry of Ports and Shipping M.M.P.K. Mayadunne told The Sunday Morning that the fish processing plant was constructed at a cost of € 2.2 million (about Rs. 432 million). The construction of the plant was commenced alongside the Oluvil Port in 2008 and was completed in 2013. It was officially opened on 1 September 2008 by then President Mahinda Rajapaksa. The loan was taken on a 10-year payback period, and according to the Ministry Secretary’s office, the loan is still being repaid. Several aspects of the fish processing plant stand out when compared to similar industrial units in the country. In light of the state of its equipment, one such unique feature is the massive, super-cooling freezer unit installed in the plant, which is commonly known as an industrial-grade “blast freezer”. Features and procedures A two-stage procedure is followed when processing fish. The initial processing stage is where the fish are brought into a cold room with an average temperature of 5°C, where the fish are cleaned and prepped for storing. The second phase is storage in which the fish are shifted to the blast freezer with a temperature brought down as low as -60°C. This method of intense and instant cooling allows the fish to be stored in blast freezers year-round. Storage is one of the key special features of this processing plant and it has a capacity of storing 500 tonnes of fish at a time. Each storage unit is 20m2 ­and has a total of 35 such units in the plant. Due to its ability to store large stocks of fish year-round and still be able to provide consumers with high-quality fish, it would have greatly assisted the local fish industry become self-sufficient. The plant has amenities to handle up to 500 people within the plant to carry out operations as well as facilities to clean, gut, and store a large variety of fish breeds and sizes. In fact, the Oluvil fish processing plant is advanced enough to even process large fish varieties such as the giant bluefin tuna, which can grow to be as heavy as 150 kg. In addition, operations of the plant would have provided 2,500 employment opportunities, either directly or indirectly. Separate power generators and a transformer were also installed in addition to oil tanks to store fuel – all of which were built to efficiently generate power for the fish processing plant and its powerful blast freezers. Overall, the Oluvil fish processing plant is the only one of its kind in Sri Lanka and the largest fish processing plant on the entire eastern coast. Reality check However, it has not been operational for more than one day; that day too being the day it was officially declared open. One of the main reasons for this is that the fisheries harbour along with the entire Oluvil Port has been plagued with the issue of sand filling the basin – an issue that had occurred even before construction began. Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) Actg. Director – Technical Susantha Abeysiriwardena, speaking to The Sunday Morning, said the study had concluded the project to be feasible technically but not financially. “The particular coastal stretch was not considered suitable for a harbour at first glance, but on the insistence of the (then) Minister, a basic conceptual plan for a harbour with two breakwaters was prepared to proceed with a detailed technical feasibility study,” he said, adding that the Government at the time had not been able to secure funding for the project. He said the Port and its surrounding facilities had been built despite knowing that sand filling was an obstacle. Abeysiriwardana explained that the sand movement estimates derived from mathematical calculations and small-scale modelling were far below the actual situation and that sand filling was many times the estimated amount. “Trying to estimate the amount of sand filling through scale models was not sufficient as sand particles were too small and tended to collapse at such a small scale. Therefore, it had not been possible to foresee the current problem through the study,” he said. Meanwhile, Secretary to the Ministry Tennakoon said he and the Minister would be visiting both the commercial harbour and the fisheries harbour at the Oluvil Port as well as the fish processing plant to determine what could be done as a turnaround solution. “The Minister was of the view that we could transform the entire thing into a mixed development project,” Mayadunne said. The Minister is expected to visit the Oluvil Port in the coming weeks.