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State owned Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) allegedly invested between Rs. 30-40 million to refurbish the terminal in the Colombo port including the buying of scanning machines to facilitate the recently defunct ferry service between Colombo and Tuticorin while the ship that did the run has been arrested for the alleged non-payment of bunkering charges due to a private supplier in Colombo, it’s learnt.
State owned Ceylon Shipping Corporation (CSC) in its website said that those services provided by Flemingo, an Indian based duty free operator, was suspended from November 21.
A CSC source speaking on the grounds of anonymity told this reporter that this virginal passenger ferry service that began nearly five months ago in July was suspended because the ship deployed didn’t have the sufficient load factor to make it a viable operation.
“It had a carrying capacity of 1,000 but only between 150-170 passengers were using this service,” he said. To break even it had to carry a load factor of between 450-500, the source said. This twice weekly trip charged a fare of Rs. 12,000 per passenger and was equivalent to the cost of a plane trip, the source said.
But the advantage was that a passenger could carry upto 100 kilos of luggage whereas in plane travel it was cut down to a fifth of that amount, to 20kg. The voyage to Tuticorin takes half-a-day.
CSC was however planning to revive this operation by talking to small ship operators which would then make business sense, he said. The source further said that the refurbishment expenses were not a waste as that berth could be used to facilitate cruise liners calling on Colombo.
The bunkering issue will not be a problem here because this will be a wholly new service, he said. Those ships may be able to take a maximum passenger load of 300 as opposed to the previous which was 1,000. The source however refused to go into detail as to with whom they were talking to, to revive this service.
No tenders have had been called, he added. SLPA will however be paid the necessary fees for facilitating such services, he said. This service will restart soon.
The source further said that prior to the terrorist war in 1983 a passenger ferry service was run between Talaimannar and Dhanushkody. This voyage took between two to three hours. However it’s difficult to revive that service as the infrastructure facilities, including the rail service to Talaimannar has been destroyed by the war, he said.
http://www.thesundayleader.lk/2011/12/04/slpa-makes-rs-30-mn-investment-loss/
State owned Ceylon Shipping Corporation (CSC) in its website said that those services provided by Flemingo, an Indian based duty free operator, was suspended from November 21.
A CSC source speaking on the grounds of anonymity told this reporter that this virginal passenger ferry service that began nearly five months ago in July was suspended because the ship deployed didn’t have the sufficient load factor to make it a viable operation.
“It had a carrying capacity of 1,000 but only between 150-170 passengers were using this service,” he said. To break even it had to carry a load factor of between 450-500, the source said. This twice weekly trip charged a fare of Rs. 12,000 per passenger and was equivalent to the cost of a plane trip, the source said.
But the advantage was that a passenger could carry upto 100 kilos of luggage whereas in plane travel it was cut down to a fifth of that amount, to 20kg. The voyage to Tuticorin takes half-a-day.
CSC was however planning to revive this operation by talking to small ship operators which would then make business sense, he said. The source further said that the refurbishment expenses were not a waste as that berth could be used to facilitate cruise liners calling on Colombo.
The bunkering issue will not be a problem here because this will be a wholly new service, he said. Those ships may be able to take a maximum passenger load of 300 as opposed to the previous which was 1,000. The source however refused to go into detail as to with whom they were talking to, to revive this service.
No tenders have had been called, he added. SLPA will however be paid the necessary fees for facilitating such services, he said. This service will restart soon.
The source further said that prior to the terrorist war in 1983 a passenger ferry service was run between Talaimannar and Dhanushkody. This voyage took between two to three hours. However it’s difficult to revive that service as the infrastructure facilities, including the rail service to Talaimannar has been destroyed by the war, he said.
http://www.thesundayleader.lk/2011/12/04/slpa-makes-rs-30-mn-investment-loss/
