Category: Shipping and Transport

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 […]

Mar 15, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s road development and transport authorities are planning bus services for the public on the island’s first expressway part of which is set to open in July, an official said. A fuel station will be set up at Dodangoda in Kalutara on the expressway. Vehicles like three-wheeled auto-rickshaws, motorcycles, […]

Mar 15, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has registered a new motor bike the equivalent every two and a half minutes and a three-wheeler taxi every six minutes in 2010, the latest official data shows. In 2010 registrations of motor cycles rose 51 percent to 204,811 surpassing an earlier high of 182,508 reached in 2007, […]

Mar 15, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is to keep clear land on either side of several expressways that are being planned or built where no buildings will be allowed, a senior official said. Road Development Authority director-general R W R Pemasiri said, owners of private property on either side of the expressway being built […]

Mar 14, 2011 (LBO) – A German delegation headed by a Sri Lankan-born official from the port of Hamburg held talks with Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) on assistance and collaboration between the two harbours, a statement said. The construction of the breakwater of the Colombo Port Expansion Project is on schedule and is expected […]

Mar 14, 2011 (LBO) – Imports of all types of vehicles to Sri Lanka rose 75.9 percent to 359,243 in 2010 amid strong economic growth which increased demand and also a cut in state taxes for cars, government data showed. Imports of motor cars rose four fold to 23,072 in 2010 from 5,762 a year […]

Mar 08, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Road Development Authority is considering building an elevated highway to connect the capital’s city centre with two key suburban towns and reduce congestion, R W R Pemasiri, its director-general, said. “We can make it a toll road,” Pemasiri said. “We’re planning a feasibility study on the project soon […]