Sri Lankan President Rajapaksa utilised every opportunity provided by ADMK supremo Jayalalitha in the past by defending civilian casualty in his war against Tamils, to the advantage of his ethnic cleansing programme. So also he tactfully utilised her opposition to Sethusamudram project just because the 150-year old dream of Tamils was realised by the DMK and constructed a port in his native province in the southern tip of the Island Nation at Hambandota. Jayalalitha’s reasons for her opposition for the project during her earlier tenure in 2001-06 was based on environmental concerns, threat to marine wealth and fishermen.
The then Foreign Minister of Sri Lanka late Lakshman Kadirgamar in their Parliament on July 8, 2005. made a statement in reply to a question by Athuraliya Ratana Thera that the government should take up SSCP to the international court of justice. Excerpts from the statement are as follows:
“The GOSL has for a long time been inviting the Indian government’s attention to SSCP’s implications for Sri Lanka. Our concerns were conveyed at various levels. The discussions were at the level of the President of Sri Lanka and the Prime Minister of India, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and the senior officials of the two countries, at the Indo-Sri Lanka Joint Commission and at the Foreign Secretary consultations. Since the Government of India has now chosen to implement the Project on the Indian side of the Indo-Sri Lanka maritime boundary, no prior approval was sought or granted for the Project. However on the part of GOSL we have raised our concerns relating to SSCP’s likely trans-frontier impact on Sri Lanka especially in environment and livelihood areas…..
I am of course duty bound to assure the House that Sri Lanka will take all the necessary steps to safeguard the well-being and the interests of our people and our country. We would naturally do this in a calibrated and graduated manner opting first for a co-operative and consultative approach. At the moment we are engaged in that exercise. We will consider further action thereafter if and when necessary.
This is quite a constructive understanding between the two countries on a very complex issue, which I would say is a hotly debated Project in both countries. You would have seen that a few days ago Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalitha herself raised a number of concerns with regard to the Project. A study complied by an Expert Committee appointed by the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board has reportedly highlighted specific shortcomings in the National Environment Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) Report. So have many other Indian and Sri Lankan people, civil society organizations and independent experts. We must therefore address these in a manner commensurate with excellent bilateral relations we have between India and Sri Lanka on the one hand and the economic and environmental interests of our countries and the peoples on the other hand. I have no reason to doubt that the relevant authorities in our two countries will be able to proceed on this matter with due diligence and care.
The GOSL is committed to continue the process of consultations with the Indian government to ensure that our concerns are addressed and any negative effects mitigated. The Gulf of Mannar and Palk Straits area is a shared biosphere for both India and Sri Lanka. Its development and protection of its sensitive marine life should be carried our jointly and together. Should the canal be determined to pose adverse effects to Sri Lanka, the government will explore appropriate measures and take all necessary steps to safeguard our interests”.
But in spite of Mahinda Rajapaksa’s promotional efforts, the Hambandota port project ended in failure because concern has been raised over the port’s maximum depth of 17m, which it says is not deep enough for unloading larger cargo vessels. The port, launched in August 2010, has been hit by numerous problems. The government said at that time that there had been delays in completing it because of a huge rock on the seabed near the harbour entrance, which impeded access to it.
Nevertheless, even though that problem is said to be being solved, only shallow vessels can safely berth at Hambantota. Opposition UNP MP Harin Fernando said that the port had only been constructed to “satisfy President Rajapaksa’s ego”. His concerns about the capacity of the port have been supported by the Port of London Authority which has also said that bigger ships may not be able to use Hambantota. Fernando argues that although it was supposed officially to have opened two years back, the port is still not functioning properly.”The problem is that it is very difficult for larger vessels to berth at the port because of the fluctuating tide. Furthermore, the port can become dangerous in heavy monsoon rain”.
However Rajapaksa did not give up his efforts to ‘safeguard’ Sri Lanka’s revenue through Colombo port in the event of Sethusamudram project execution is completed and bulk of the present handling of ships by Colombo port is lost to Tuticorin port in Tamil Nadu. Once again Jayalalitha provided advantage to him by suddenly invoking ‘Ramar bridge’ in September 2007, well over two years after her initial objections. On her return to power in TN, her government filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court for shelving of the project itself. Rajapaksa once again took advantage of Jayalalitha’s retrograde step and developed a massive second terminal in Colombo port with Chinese aid.
The $500 million Chinese-built port opened on August 5 in Sri Lanka, giving Beijing a vital foothold on the world’s busiest international shipping lane as it seeks to secure maritime supply routes. The massive terminal in Colombo is located mid-way on the lucrative east-west sea route and has facilities on a par with Singapore and Dubai.
The Colombo International Container Terminal (CICT), which is 85 percent owned by the state-run China Merchant Holdings International, is designed to handle mega ships — a first for Sri Lanka which is aiming to become the region’s shipping hub.
The involvement of such a large Chinese company appears to conform to a pattern by Beijing after it sealed a deal in January to acquire the Pakistani port of Gwadar at a time when it is also building a $14 million “dry port” in the Nepalese city of Larcha, near Tibet. Chinese loans and expertise were also instrumental in the construction of a new $450 million deep-sea port at the southern Sri Lankan city of Hambantota which opened earlier in 2012.
Independent shipping expert, Rohan Masakorala, says the new terminal made economic sense for China to tap in to the growing South Asian container cargo and gave Beijing a foothold along a strategic sea route.
“Terminal investments are a good business which can give a very good return,” said Masakorala, a former secretary-general of the Singapore-based Asian Shippers Council. “Through this investment, China is also securing the safety and efficiency of their main supply chain.”
He said about half of all world sea trade passed through the east-west shipping route and a presence at a mid-way point along that gives China a commanding position.
“For China to maintain economic growth at home, they also need to go out and secure their supply routes. In that sense, coming to Colombo is a strategic commercial investment.”
The Chinese investment in Sri Lanka, which is under pressure from Western powers and India over its human rights record, has raised fears in New Delhi about Beijing’s influence in the neighbourhood.
But Priyath Bandu Wickrama, chairman of the state-run Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA), insisted that India had nothing to fear from the new Colombo port and could in fact be a major beneficiary. Wickrama said shippers in India could save up to four days by routing their cargo through Sri Lanka rather than using Singapore or Dubai.
“Earlier, Indians along the east coast had to send their cargo to Singapore if they wanted to catch a mega ship going West. Now these mega ships will be going through Colombo and picking up Indian cargo,” he said adding, “That saves time and a lot of money.”
Saliya Senanayake from the London-based Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport says that “India is about five to six years behind Sri Lanka when it comes to port infrastructure”.
Sri Lanka has been an important stop in the ancient Silk Sea Route and today hundreds of ships pass its southern coast daily while plying the world’s busiest international shipping lane.
The SLPA is pouring millions of dollars into infrastructure around the island and says it is on course to increase container handling capacity by 1.6 million containers to 6.4 million by April.
It hopes to have a container capacity of 10 million by 2020, while revenue is forecast to triple to one billion dollars by 2020. Hambantota, which is just 12 kilometres (7.5 miles) away from the East-West sea lane, is being promoted as a key service centre and industrial port where large ships can re-fuel or take on fresh food.
In April next year, Colombo’s port is due to open another mega terminal just next to the Chinese-managed CICT. The new addition will initially be able to handle about 800,000 containers a year, according to the SLPA.
Professor Tsz Leung Yip, head of the International Centre for Maritime Studies at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, said Chinese expertise coupled with Colombo’s strategic location would make Sri Lanka a key stop-over for international carriers who want to avoid the threat posed by Somali pirates operating off the Gulf of Aden. “In the presence of Somalia pirates, it is safer for ships (from the Far East to Europe) to stop over at Sri Lanka and head to Cape of Good Hope, without calling at Dubai port,” he said.
India’s loss in giving up the Sethusamudram project is not only an economic gain for Sri Lanka and China but also a strategic blunder that it would commit in allowing a foothold for China in the South, courtesy, the political animosity and obstinacy of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalitha.
No comments:
Post a Comment