• He told Parliament that Sri Lanka had already received the first interim claim of Rs.720 million
• The interim claims had been assessed only for the economic damages and compensation for the  environmental damages would be claimed  separately

By Ajith Siriwardana and Yohan Perera 

 The process of assessing damages caused to the environment by the X-Press Pearl disaster will be completed by the end of December or beginning of January 2022 and steps would be taken to recover compensation from the owners of the vessel, Justice Minister Ali Sabri said yesterday.  

He told Parliament that Sri Lanka had already received the first interim claim of Rs.720 million and action had already been taken to claim the second interim claim as well.  

Responding to a question raised by National Peoples’ Power (NPP) MP- Anura Kumara Dissanayake, the Minister said the interim claims had been assessed only for the economic damages and added that compensation for the  environmental damages would be claimed separately.   “These interim claims are for economic damages such as expenses for cleaning the debris. We have removed 1,650 tons of plastic pellets and used more than 3,500 man-days for this purpose,” he said.