It would take Colombo port quite some time to resurrect its old glory of cornering almost the entire transshipment traffic of east coast ports because of the serious economic crisis the island government is facing. But the east coast ports which have suffered chronic neglect of their infrastructure needs will not be in a position to take advantage of the
situation and ramp up their volumes.
The southern Indian ports like Tuticorin, Chennai, Ennore or Cochin need to be able to accommodate larger vessels in terms of /beam and draft, to be able to offer themselves as viable alternatives to Colombo,” said Sunil Vaswani, executive director of the Container
shipping lines association.
Ennore port in existence for over twenty years has a draft limitation of 15 meters
He said the Ennore port in existence for over twenty years has a draft limitation of 15 meters, whereas Tuticorin can accommodate vessels up to LOA 310 /draft 14.2 meters and Cochin up to LOA / draft 14.5 meters. On the other hand, Colombo can accommodate vessels up to LOA up to 395 /draft 18 meters.”
As the challenges facing Sri Lanka’s Colombo Port are unlikely to loosen up any time soon, Indian east coast ports have ramped up their efforts to position themselves as alternative port call options for mainliners serving the subcontinent market. But there’s Scepticism among carrier leaders about infrastructure and productivity standards at the container terminals in the east coast.
The east coast ports depend on the road evacuation to the extent of 90 per cent of the
volumes.
