• Govt. holds back concessions, halting start of $ 392 m project

The much-heralded project to build South Asia’s largest commercial and logistics complex at the Port of Colombo involving an investment of $ 392 million is yet to commence due to a holdup in approval for concessions, the Ministry of Ports, Shipping, and Aviation reveals. 

Speaking to The Sunday Morning Business, Ministry of Ports, Shipping, and Aviation Secretary K.D.S. Ruwanchandra admitted that the project, which was originally scheduled to commence in the second half of 2023, was yet to break ground.

Elaborating further, he revealed: “Projects such as this, which are considered foreign investments, can be classified as strategic development projects. Upon being classified as such, the project becomes entitled to certain concessions. The approval in relation to these concessions is not complete yet.”

He shared that there was no timeline on when this issue would be resolved.

He further revealed that the logistics complex would offer comprehensive logistics services in a single location and that in order to facilitate this, the logistics centre planned to sublease floor space to various logistics service providers. This approach aims to centralise and streamline logistics operations by bringing together different service providers under one roof.

The three investing entities in this project are the China Merchants Port Holdings (CMPort), holding a 70% stake, and Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) and Access Engineering PLC (Access), each holding a 15% stake in the venture.

This 530,000 sq. m logistics complex project will be carried out through a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement, approved on a Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) basis for a leasehold period of 50 years.