According to the records of the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA), 45 cruise ships have been called at Port of Colombo in the last 10 months of this year, which is a 28.8 percent increase against the corresponding period in 2017.
This record-breaking growth is a significant achievement after declaring the years 2017, 2018 and 2019 as tourism and investment years of Sri Lanka by President Maithripala Sirisena with the objective of creating a prosperous country.
These years have been declared to ease the planning for the next three years to overcome all challenges in the fields of hotel and tourism in Sri Lanka by 2020.
Meanwhile, the Port of Colombo has witnessed the highest growth of 19.5 percent in transshipment container throughput for the first ten months in 2018 as against the corresponding period in 2017.
During the first ten months of 2018, the Port of Colombo handled 4,717,746 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUS) of transshipment containers as against 3,948,163 TEUS handled in the corresponding period in 2017.
Under the leadership of Ports and shipping Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe, and advice of SLPA Chairman Dr. Parakrama Dissanayake the positive increase at SLPA controlled terminal, Jaya Container Terminal (JCT), and Colombo International Container Terminal (CICT), and South Asia Gateway Terminal (SAGT) collectively resulted in this increase.
Following Minister Samarasinghe’s appointment as Ports and Shipping Minister, an exclusive three-year plan was introduced to develop the entire port sector to establish Sri Lanka as the most preferred maritime gateway to South Asia.
The Port of Colombo is ranked as world’s number-one container growth port among the top 30 container ports for the first half of 2018. In container handling, Port of Colombo has recorded a 15.6 percent growth for the first half of 2018 over the same period last year according to Alphaliner Monthly 2018.
It is also a significant achievement as it is the first time in history the Port of Colombo reaches the top of a global maritime ranking. With this growth, Port of Colombo has leapt ahead many other Asian Ports, Major European Ports and Dubai as well.
The Port of Colombo expects to handle 7.0 million containers in 2018, up 12.9 percent from the 6.2 million TEUS handled in 2017 with joint marketing by three terminals, JCT,SAGT and CICT.
SLPA was awarded the Ports Authority of the Year 2018 Award by the Global Ports Forum (GPF). The fourth GPF awards ceremony, followed by the conference forum, was held in February this year at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
Sri Lanka Travel Feneteko