Category: Shipping and Transport

June 17, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s government has invited private bus operators to start services on the island’s first expressway set to open by end-July with a terminal to connect other routes planned close to the capital. Private transport services minister C B Ratnayake said the government expects to have 10 air-conditioned luxury buses […]

June 17, 2011 (LBO) – Japan’s ClassNK, the world’s largest ship classification society in gross tonnage terms, has opened an office in Sri Lanka as shipping traffic grows at Colombo port. The 111-year-old ClassNK has some 7,347 ships over 180 million gross tonnes or about 20 percent of the world’s commercial fleet on its registry […]

June 17, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s government plans to arrange low-cost leases for private operators to help them replace aging fleets of buses with new ones, private transport services minister C B Ratnayake said. A large number of buses plying on the island’s roads were 15-20 years old and should be removed, he told […]

June 16, 2011 (LBO) – Container shipping line CMA CGM has announced a freight rate increase from July 1 including on cargo loaded from Sri Lanka, joining other lines that are trying to raise rates. CMA CGM, the Marseilles-based line that is the world’s third largest container shipping line, said it planned to hikes rates […]

June 13, 2011 (LBO) – An toll expressway to Sri Lanka’s southern city of Galle is expected be completed by July 2011, but the pricing has not yet been decided, the head of the country’s road agency R W Pemasiri said. He said work on 31.6 kilometer stretch financed by the Japan Bank for International […]

June 12, 2011 (LBO) – The shipping division of Sri Lanka’s Aitken Spence group has won a deal to improve the efficiency of the port of Nacala in Mozambique, building on its reputation elsewhere in Africa, the company said. The deal was made on the strong “reputation it has built as a result of the […]

June 09, 2011 (LBO) – A city taxi service using Tata Nano cars has started in Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo, but the firm cannot cope with demand for hires and is awaiting shipments from India to expand the fleet, an official said. But Dharmadasa says the firm can hardly cope with demand from local customers, […]

June 09, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lankan shipbuilder Colombo Dockyard has begun building the second vessel in a contract for oil platform supply vessels from Greatship Global Offshore Services of Singapore. The vessel is also designed to accommodate 50 people. The keel for the Multipurpose Platform Supply Vessel, scheduled for delivery in the second quarter […]

May 30, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Mercantile Shipping lost 38 million rupees in the March 2011 quarter through revenues rose 22 percent to 197 million rupees, according to interim accounts. Last year Mercantile Shipping warned shareholders that despite taking delivery of new vessels international charter rates were depressed in the near term. For the […]

May 30, 2011 (LBO) – A passenger vessel that can carry up to 1,044 people is to be used to launch a transport service between Sri Lanka’s Colombo port and the south Indian harbour of Tuticorin. The ‘Scotia Princess’ ferry will initially do two voyages a week, said Classic Travels, a subsidiary of Expolanka Holdings, […]

May 29, 2011 (AFP) – India’s Tata Nano, billed as the world’s cheapest car, began its first export sales Sunday by entering the Sri Lankan market — but with a price tag nearly three times what it is at home. Sri Lanka reduced car duties by almost half in June last year, but then raised […]

May 22, 2011 (LBO) – India’s first cruise ship, Chennai flagged AMET Majesty will make calls on Sri Lanka’s Colombo and Trincomalee ports when it begins high seas cruises in June, a media report said. India is already the largest generator of tourists to Sri Lanka. Arrivals have boomed since the island introduced visa on […]