Moves afoot to create artificial offshore island off Hambantota  Using sand dredged from seabed

By Franklin R. Satyapalan-September 28, 2013

The government has decided to go ahead with plans to dump the sand dredged from the seabed under the second phase of the Mahagampura Mahinda Rajapaksa Port Development Project in Hambantota to create an artificial offshore island with a 40- acre land area, senior government sources said yesterday.

The second phase of this key port project is now underway at a cost of US$ 808 million, which has been negotiated as loan from the EXIM Bank of China.With the completion of dredging of the seabed up to a depth of 17 meters under this project by the latter part of 2015, the present vessel quayside berthing capacity of four vessels could be increased to accommodate berthing for 11 large Roro vessels, which transport automobiles, and container transport cargo vessels .

Chief Engineer/Director of the Southern Port Development, Agil Hewageegana said that around 20 million cubic meters of sand is expected to be excavated from the seabed and as a solution on a location to dump such a large volume of sea sand, the creation of an artificial offshore island.

"We are awaiting clearance from the Coast Conservation Department (CCD) to go ahead with the plans to dump the sand dredged by the contractors China Harbors Corporation (CHC) which is pushing ahead with phase two of the Mahinda Rajapaksa Port Development project", he noted.Hewageegana said that there had been expressions of interest from foreign investors to utilize the artificial offshore island after completion of the second phase of the port development project by end 2015.

They have proposed utilizing the offshore island for setting up duty-free shopping malls, restaurants with entertainment facilities to cater mainly to the large number of seamen aboard merchant vessels calling over for bunkering of fuel, water, laundering of linen and provision of supplies of local fruits and vegetable, he explained.

There had been expressions of interest from a few foreign investors to set up an offshore container transshipment terminal and offshore industries manufacturing processed food items, cement, garments and sugar exclusively for export, the Director said.

"The government has not finalized any of these offers so far as everyone knows that Rome was not built in a day. Similarly the government is steadily progressing positively on this initiative. We would entertain expressions of interest, which would be evaluated during the latter stages of the completion of this project", he said.