Category: Shipping and Transport

Nov 27, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa has opened the country’s first expressway running from the capital Colombo to the city of Galle, which will slash travel time to the south of the island. The 700 million US dollar expressway is built with loans from Japan and the Asian Development Bank. The […]

Nov 24, 2011 (LBO) – Japan will provide funding for an electronic toll collection ‘touch-and-go’ card system on Sri Lanka’s first expressway that is to be officially opened on November 27. The 95 kilometre southern expressway, linking the capital Colombo with the southern port town of Galle, is designed for 100 kilometres per hour speeds […]

Nov 18, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Colombo Dockyard said September 2011 quarter net profit fell 43 percent to 455 million rupees from a year ago as revenue from both ship building and repair came down. Sales of the yard, 51 percent owned by Japan’s Onomichi Dockyard Company, fell 27.7 percent to 3.5 billion rupees […]

Nov 18, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s first expressway has serious flaws that make 100 kilometres an hour travel unsafe, an organisation of transport professionals has warned, questioning whether safety features were compromised in cost cutting. The southern expressway linking the capital Colombo with the south is to be formally opened on November 27 and […]

Nov 18, 2011 (LBO) – Container terminals at Colombo port run by state-owned Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) have received a second batch of new cranes to replace aging equipment, a statement said. Three gantry cranes and eleven rubber tired yard gantry cranes to transfer cargo were delivered this week by Chinese manufacturer ZPMC. They […]

Nov 18, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has signed a deal with India to restore part of a northern railway line that was damaged during the ethnic war under project funded by soft loans from New Delhi. The agreement between Sri Lanka Railways and the Indian government owned IRCON was for the restoration of the […]

Nov 17, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has allowed the state Road Development Agency to directly import bitumen for road building in addition to buying from state-run Ceylon Petroleum Corporation, minister Keheliya Rambukwelle said. Delays could results in contractor’s machinery lying idle resulting in losses which can escalate project costs. He said the cabinet of […]

Nov 17, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s first high-speed expressway that is to be opened this month lacks adequate roadside space to park vehicles during emergency stops, journalists taken on a tour were able to observe. The southern expressway also has lights only on bridges and at intersections with ramps connecting the highway with other […]

Nov 14, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka will permit public transport to operate on the island’s first expressway after buses with safety features are imported, deputy highways minister Nirmala Kothelawala said. “We will allow buses to travel on the road after four or five months,” minister Kothelawala told reporters. “But buses with belts in all […]

Nov 14, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s first 96 kilometre expressway from the capital Colombo to Galle in the south of the island to be opened in November 27, cost 77 billion rupees to build, officials said. The road is part of a 126-kilometer expressway running to Matara at the Southern tip of the island […]

Nov 14, 2011 (LBO) – Co-operation among countries with interests in the Indian Ocean is essential to effectively fight Somali piracy against merchant ships which could threaten trade if unchecked, a Sri Lanka defence official said. “It is our belief that the lasting solution to threats of this nature cannot be undertaken by individual nations […]

Nov 14, 2011 (LBO) – Agreements to start building the first container terminal by Aitken Spence and China Merchants Holding (International) in a new deep water port being built next to Sri Lanka’s Colombo port were signed last week. Construction work of the South Container Terminal will start on December 01, 2011 and first 600 […]