The Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) yesterday said the servicing of vessels has normalised, though clearing the backlog of containers accumulated for several weeks will take a little longer.
“The operations of the Colombo port have now returned to normalcy. There are no issues in servicing the vessels. The daily progress is assessed through the crane and container handling productivity, where it shows faster recovery post-crisis,” SLPA Chairman Major General (Retd.) Daya Ratnayake told the Daily FT.
He said the delays are now only within inter-terminal trucking due to the accumulated containers within the yards. “On average we clear around 2,500 containers daily. During the crisis week due to a reduction in manpower it dropped to 1,000 containers. However, yesterday we handled a total of 5,000 containers.”
Ratnayake said more manpower had been deployed to work around the clock to clear the backlogged containers stuck in yards. “There is no short cut, we have to work around the clock to get these containers cleared. The practical difficulty we face at present is in selecting the containers and getting it transferred within terminals, which is time consuming.”
He said it will take at least another week to clear the inter-terminal backlog, which are mostly transhipment containers.
“We understand that there were accumulated containers, and some containers were left out from the vessels due to the delays, but we have now made arrangements for it to be reshipped,” he pointed out.
The SLPA Chief said there are no vessels idling, as the servicing of vessels has now returned to normalcy.
However, according to the Chinese-run Colombo International Container Terminals (CICT), four ships were waiting to berth at the terminal, while six more vessels were waiting to berth at Jaya Container Terminal (JCT) and South Asia Gateway Terminals (SAGT).
In terms of the extra staff deployed to operationalise the port of Colombo, Ratnayake said the SLPA will incur an additional cost of Rs. 140 million per month. “During the crisis week we mustered all possible manpower to get the port up and running. Around 25% additional staff were deployed to fill the gaps of terminal operation specialists. During the first wave in March, we incurred an additional cost of Rs. 134 million per month for the extra staff, and this time it would be around Rs. 135 - 140 million.”
He added that the SLPA has conducted close to 3,000 PCR tests for its employees and it would continue. “Over the past two days alone we did 1,200 PCR tests. Operations at the Port of Colombo are continuing without any hindrance, and every step has been implemented to ensure the health and safety of all those involved in port operations and other related services amidst the pandemic.”
(FT)