Category: Shipping and Transport

Apr 15, 2011 (LBO) – Increased freight transport has helped Sri Lanka’s state-owned railway department sharply reduce losses in 2010, according to the central bank. “The railway network coverage, reliability and the service delivery should be improved in line with the emerging transport demand of the country,” the report said. It said the performance of […]

Apr 15, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s over-staffed state-run bus services lost 8.4 billion rupees in 2010, up 4. 9 percent from the 8.4 billion rupees a year earlier, eating up billions of rupees of taxes extracted from the people from other means. There was no mention of depreciation charges. The SLTB owned 7,746 buses […]

Apr 12, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) has taken delivery of new cranes to replace old ones at its main container terminal in Colombo port that will help improve productivity, officials said. The company which supplied the original cranes is no longer functioning, making the supply of spares a problem, it said. […]

Apr 08, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lankan ship builder Colombo Dockyard has laid the keel for the first of a series three Multipurpose Platform Supply Vessels for Singapore’s Greatship Global Offshore Services. The vessel is designed to have an accommodation area for 50 persons. The vessel, scheduled for delivery in the first quarter of 2012, […]

Apr 06, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s supply chain losses are the highest in the region with a poor road network and congestion resulting in transport delays and higher costs, an expert said. Kumarage, a former chairman of the national transport commission, said better transport policies and implementation were required apart from building better roads […]

Apr 04, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Hayleys group has appointed Ruwan Waidyaratne as managing director of Hayleys Advantis, a subsidiary encompassing group companies in transportation and cargo logistics. The transportation division of Hayleys consists of more than 22 specialist companies. Waidyaratne succeeded M O Raban, who retired from the position on April 01 and […]

Mar 31, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka will have to find ways to improve public transport to reduce the need for private vehicle use to prevent gridlock as vehicle ownership rises with rising incomes, an expert said. “We need a sustained policy because vehicle growth is bound to happen with income growth. ” said Amal […]

Mar 30, 2011 (LBO) – A surfeit of ministries handling transport in Sri Lanka has turned the sector into a “nightmare” with fragmented responsibilities preventing urgently needed reforms to modernise a long-neglected system, an expert said. A “lead agency” is required to provide proper guidance to develop the island’s transport system, said Amal Kumarage, chairman […]

Mar 28, 2011 (LBO) – The Sri Lankan government is seeking private investment proposals to modernise the neglected transport system and will give investors speedy approvals, a senior official said. A new transport master plan is being prepared to economically move people and freight, said Dhammika Perera, secretary to the ministry of transport. Investments are […]

Mar 21, 2011 (LBO) – The Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) said it is using scanners installed under an American counter-terrorism initiative to scan cargo from Japan at Colombo port for radiation. The scanners can detect radioactive materials inside containers. The Colombo port scanning was prompted by the release of radiation into the atmosphere from […]

Mar 18, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Colombo Dockyard said it has delivered the fourth in a series of oil industry offshore support vessels for Greatship (India), a subsidiary of The Great Eastern Shipping Company of India. Christened ‘Greatship Rashi’, she will join her sister vessel Greatship Rohini which was delivered in February 2011, said […]

Mar 18, 2011 (LBO) – Construction work on stage one of Sri Lanka’s first expressway is set to end this month with 99 percent of the work over, according to details revealed by the Road Development Authority. The southern expressway, being built in four stages, will have a total length of 131.1 kilometres and allow […]