Colombo:
Sri Lanka’s President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Wednesday announced the revival of an Indian and Japanese investment project to create a deep-sea terminal in Colombo harbour, next to a controversial $500-million Chinese-run container jetty.
A tripartite deal by Sri Lanka’s earlier government had been on hold amid trade union resistance, but Rajapaksa stated the East Container Terminal (ECT) would proceed.
Approval came just after reviewing “regional geo-political concerns,” Rajapaksa’s workplace stated, a reference to India’s suspicion of China’s part at the identical port.
The terminal will be created with 51 % ownership by Sri Lanka’s government and the remaining 49 % as an investment by Adani Group and other stakeholders like Japan, officials stated.
The state-run Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) entered into a memorandum of cooperation in May 2019 with Sri Lanka, India and Japan to create the ECT just before Rajapaksa came to energy in November 2019.
The deep-sea jetty is situated next to the Colombo International Container Terminal which is 85 % owned by China and was commissioned in 2013.
The SLPA owns the remaining 15 %.
India lodged protests when Chinese submarines created unannounced visits to the Chinese-managed terminal in 2014.
Since then, Sri Lanka has refused permission for additional submarine calls.
Nearly 70 % of transhipment containers handled by Colombo was Indian export-import cargo.
In December 2017, Sri Lanka, unable to repay a substantial Chinese loan, handed more than yet another deep sea port in the south of the island to a Beijing corporation in a deal that raised issues at house and abroad.
The $1.12 billion deal, very first announced in July 2016, permitted a Chinese state corporation to take more than the Hambantota port, which straddles the world’s busiest east-west shipping route, on a 99-year lease.
India and the United States are each concerned a Chinese foothold at Hambantota, 240 kilometres (150 miles) south of Colombo, could give it a military naval benefit in the Indian Ocean.
Sri Lanka has insisted its ports will not be made use of for any military purposes.