• Investor willing to spend $ 200 million
• Terminal will be fully functional by 2024

By Yohan Perera and Ajith Siriwardana

Eastern Terminal of Colombo Port will be developed into a logistics hub together with an investor who is willing to spend $ 200 million for it, Minister of Ports Rohitha Abeygunawardena told Parliament yesterday.  

“The Eastern Terminal only handles 7 million containers while the capacity will be increased to 14 million and thus will be turned into a logistics hub. We have found an investor who is willing to spend $ 200 million for it,” the Minister said. 

“The investor will hand over the terminal to the Sri Lanka government after developing it fully,” he added.  He said the terminal will be fully functional by 2024. The Minister said gantries have already been ordered and six gantries will arrive shortly for the first phase while 20 others will arrive December 2022. More gantries will come by 2024 and the terminal will be fully functional in 2024,” the Minister also said. 

He said the CICT Terminal which is run by China at the moment will be handed over to Sri Lanka in 35 years. He said the total space of this terminal accounts for 58.4 hectares. “The Hambantota Port was given to China for a period of 99 years and the total area comes to 1,188 hectares,” he said.