There is an increase in the receiving of containers at the Colombo port after the recent five-day long weekend, Customs Deputy Director (Legal) and media spokesman Sudatta Silva said.

He said that after the long weekend, a total of 1,289 containers were received at the Colombo port on July 4 and a total of 1,498 containers on July 5. The arrival of these containers at the inspection yards have been since yesterday, and it exceeds the capacity of the container yards.

Due to the arrival of a larger number of containers, there has been some congestion reported in the Customs container inspection yards since Friday (7), the spokesman added.

Accordingly, the Risk Management Committee of Sri Lanka Customs met today and implemented the necessary procedures to speed up the inspection of containers, he said.

With the new procedures, Sri Lanka Customs believes that this congestion will end by today, the spokesman assured. (Chaturanga Pradeep Samarawickrama)