KANKESANTHURAI: The port at Kankesanthurai (KKS) in the north Sri Lankan district of Jaffna, which India is restoring, is to be a Southasian regional marine hub serving Sri Lanka, India, Myanmar and Bangladesh.
Lankan Minister of Economic Development Basil Rajapaksa and Indian High Commissioner Ashok Kantha made the announcement here on Tuesday, after inaugurating the work related to the removal of sunken ships in the harbour and its immediate vicinity.
Kantha said that wreckage of six vessels have to be removed and the task is expected to be completed by November before the onset of the Northeast Monsoon.
The Shipping Corporation of India (SCI), to which the task was given, had floated a global tender that was won by the Singapore-based US company, Resolve Marine Group. The cost of the project estimated to be US$ 20 million, is borne by the Indian government.
Rajapaksa said that the new harbor would be “bigger and better” than the one destroyed by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in the 2006-2009 war.
A restoration of KKS port would significantly help Indo-Lankan trade as goods from Chennai and other Eastern Indian ports could be offloaded at KKS, thus obviating the need to sail another 400 nautical miles to reach Colombo. Kantha said that KKS could help serve Lanka’s trade with Bangladesh and Myanmar also. Chairman of the Sri Lanka Ports Authority Dr Priyath Wickrama said that the KKS port would have a depth of eight metres, which would allow it to take mid-size ships.