New container yard is building in Colombo port

THE Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) is building a new container yard next to its main transhipment facility at the Port of Colombo in a bid to ease congestion caused by increasing cargo flows.

SLPA chairman Priyath Wickrama said the yard, adjacent to the Jaya Container Terminal (JCT), will also have a separate entrance for trucks.

"We're going to shift all FCL [full container load] boxes to a separate dedicated FCL yard next to the JCT," Mr Wickrama was quoted as saying at a seminar on ports at the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce organised by the Asian Shippers' Council.

"This is a very important measure to reduce congestion inside the terminal. You all will get the benefit as there'll be no need to get into the terminal. You can directly come into the yard."

The new container stacking yard is expected to be in operation by January 2011, reports Lanka Business Online.

"Yards were in bad condition," Mr Wickrama said. "Some are 15 years old. We did renovation work using own staff and saved INR250 million. We've now completed yard renovation work."
(Source:www.schednet.com)