Sri Lanka Port Facilities - Colombo

Lengths of the breakwaters are:

South West breakwater 1,248 m
Extension arm to the SW breakwater 550 m
North West breakwater 809 m
North East Breakwater 305 m

By the end of the Second World War it underwent development and alongside berths were built to adapt to the change in the handling of cargo from lighterage to alongside operations. From 1969 to 1980 to cope with the containerization of sea borne cargo the first container terminal was built by extending to Queen Elizabeth Quay (QEQ). Since then four container berths were added at the Jaya Container Terminal and three more at the South West Gateway Terminal (SAGT) by redeveloping the QEQ.

The port has two entrances. The West entrance, the main entrance with a single ship access is 230m wide and has a depth of 15m. The approach channel to the West entrance is dredged to a depth of 16m and has a width of 126m at the entrance. The North entrance is 185m wide and has a depth of 13m. The harbour basin is dredged to a depth of 15m with a turning circle of 450m and a stopping distance of 1,000m.

The harbour area is 225 hectares at low water. The land area within port limit is 103 hectares. The Beira lake a fresh water lake of 75 hectares with a water level of 2m above sea level is connected to the harbour through a lock at the South of the harbour.

EXISTING PORT FACILITIES

(I) South Asia Gateway Terminal (SAGT) formerly Queen Elizabeth Quay (QEQ)
The QEQ has been leased for a period of 30 years by the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) to the terminal operator South Asia Gateway Terminals (SAGT) to develop and operate on a BOT basis. The quay has been widened by SAGT to 100m on piles Eastwards in to the harbour basin to accommodate a passenger berth of 250m and three container berths having a total length of 1,005m. The berths have 15m depths and a container terminal area of 22.2 hectares. The container berths have been provided with 9 Super Post Panamax container cranes and the terminal with 27 transfer cranes. It has a dry container stacking capacity of 26,250 TEU and a reefer container stacking capacity of 900 TEU.

(II) Bandaranayake Quay and Coaster Berths
The Bandaranayake quay has five berths for break bulk cargo. The East quay has a length of 422m and a dredged depth of 9.45m. West quay has a length of 412m which could have a depth of 10.06m while the North quay having a length of 130m could have a dredged depth of 10.97m. The quay has four transit sheds of total area of 20,460 m2 with rail mounted portal cranes and rail access. The two Coaster Berths have lengths of 100m and 85m with depths of 8m and 6m respectively.

(III) Feeder Berth
This berth, which is in close proximity to the JCT, had been recently constructed with a length of 193m and alongside depths of 10m for vessel of 10,000 DWT. The deck is trapezoidal in plan with 57m and 16m at land end and sea end respectively having an area of 6,788 m2. The berth is a concrete piled structure with a concrete deck of beams and slabs and rails to mount two container cranes, which are yet to be installed.

(IV) Jaya Container Terminal (JCT)
JCT contains four container berths of having a quay wall length of 1,292m and two feeder berths of length 180m in the South and 172m in the North. The breadth of the terminal is 350m. The alongside depths and the lengths of the berths are as follows:

JCT 1 12m X 300m
JCT 2 13m X 332m
JCT 3 15m X 330m
JCT 4 15m X 330m
JCT South Feeder Berth 9m X 180m

The JCT in addition has the under mentioned facilities:

A total container terminal area of 45.5 Hectares
A dry container stacking capacity of 34,020 TEU
A reefer container stacking capacity of 900 TEU
An empty container stacking capacity of 6,000 TEU

JCT has three repair facilities which work on a 24-hour shift basis. One workshop maintains the container cranes and the transfer cranes. The second workshop attends to the repair of the prime movers and trailers while the electrical workshop maintains the electrical components of the equipment. The Central Computer Room of the SLPA is located in the administration building of JCT with a network of terminals connected locally and via telecommunication lines.

(V) Guide Pier
Guide pier of length 330m has two berths with alongside depths of 8m and 9.5m. It is also used by the Colombo Dockyard Ltd to move vessels to the dry docks situated at the East end. When not in use for docking activities it is used by the SLPA for handling break bulk, general cargo and car carriers. Edible oils could be loaded from this pier by pipelines from ship to shore and vice versa to the storage tank farm situated within the port premises.

(VI) South Pier
The South pier is 270m in length and can accommodate vessels of draught of 9.5m. Break bulk, gas, general cargo and car carriers are handled at this pier.

(VII) New North Pier (Unity Pier)
The South Quay of the New North Pier has two berths one 130m in length having 9m depths and the other 210m length berth having 11m depths and an overall width of 100m. The quay has provisions for the installation of three container cranes. The North quay of the pier has a 200m long and a 25m wide multipurpose berth with 11m depths and pipelines to the Mahaweli Marine cement silos situated in the vicinity of the pier. It also has provisions for the installation of two container cranes. The pier has an area of 3.9 hectares and 3.2 hectares of land support having 1,020 slots with five high container storage capacities. The terminal will be provided with 8 transfer cranes and 45 prime movers and trailers. Annually 700,000T of dry bulk cargo can be also discharged from this pier.

(VIII) Prince Vijaya Quay (PVQ)
This quay is 330m long and 57.6m wide and dredged to a depth of 9.75m. The quay is mainly used to discharge bulk cement to the Mahaweli Marine and Samudra cement silos located within the port and maize in bulk to the silos of Grain Elevators silos located outside the port limits. Break bulk cargo and general cargo are also handled at this quay. The quay has two transit sheds and the transit shed nearer the North entrance to the harbour had been demolished and the area given to a private operator to establish a grain grinding mill.

(IX) Passenger Terminal
With the re-development of the Queen Elizabeth Quay (QEQ) by South Asia Gateway Terminal (SAGT), the Passenger berth was developed & launched in 2002. This berth has a quay length of 215m and the permissible draft at this berth is 10m.

(X) Oil Jetty
The oil jetty is located at the port side of the North West (Island) Breakwater. The jetty is 90m in length and has 11m depths. Eleven submarine pipelines including a 24" line for crude oil and 12" line for bunkering is laid from the jetty to the shore. Fuel is supplied to vessels berthed inside the harbour or outside by a barge owned by Lanka Marine Services. Packaged oils and lubricants are delivered direct to vessels.

(XI) Water Jetty
The water jetty situated between the QEQ and the BQ in the South of the harbour supply water to ships by barges.

(XII) Repair Facilities for Small Craft, Dredgers and Tugs
Jetties and slipways for the repair of small craft, dredgers and tugs owned by the SLPA are located in the South side of the port. The SLPA has 14 tugs ranging from 10T bollard pull to 65T bollard pull. Four tugs are kept on duty to maneuver ships entering and leaving the harbour. Three dredgers are being maintained by the SLPA to keep the harbour basin, quays and the entrance channels to the designed depths.

(XIII) General Maintenance
All the maritime structures, roads, buildings, conventional cargo handling equipments and the vehicle fleet are maintained by the SLPA by direct labour and in workshops owned and administered by the SLPA.

(XIV) Navigation
The navigation division of the SLPA is in charge of Pilotage, berthing, tug services, marine pollution, navigation aids and the maintenance of depths in the harbour. The channel light buoys, Galbokka light and Breakwater lights are maintained by the Inspector of Coast Lights who is attached to the Navigation Division.

(XV) Other Activities within the Port

* Sri Lanka Navy
The Sri Lanka Navy has a complex in the port comprising the SLNS Rangala camp and mooring facilities for their vessels in the most congested part of the port. The land area occupied by the Navy is 1.0125 hectares.

* Power Plant
A floating power plant of 60 MW capacity augmenting the electrical power supply to Colombo is located in the North of JCT adjacent to JCT 1 berth.

* Ship Repairs
Dry dock repairs of vessels up to 125,000 DWT. and boat building activities are undertaken by Colombo Dockyard Ltd at 4 dry docks and 11 repair berths in a 9 hectare block of land North of JCT.

* Cement Packaging
Mahaweli Marine Cement Co. and Samudra Cement Co. have storage and bagging plants in the North of the port. The total output of cement from the two plants exceeds 1,000,000T for the year 2002.

* Cargo Throughput The Port of Colombo is by far the most utilized, with an annual tonnage throughput of 31,299,173 M/Tons of cargo (Dry Cargo 27,700,487 MT & Liquid Cargo 3,598,686 MT) and 2,220,525 Teus in2004. During 2004 a total of 3,688 vessels called at the Port of Colombo.

NAVIGATIONAL DATA

PORT ENTRANCES

BERTHING FACILITIES

BREAKBULK BERTHS

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