The newly-opened Vizhinjam deep-sea port in Kerala, South India has been identified as a formidable challenger to Colombo port and the Sri Lankan economy, by ‘Dinana Dakuna’ collective.
At a media briefing at Hotel Janaki on 08 May, its young political activist Maheel Bandara said the Indian port’s developer had been the Adani Group, turned down by president Anura Kumara Dissanayake in the island.
India achieved considerable economic growth in the past decade, with investment focus on South India now having new industries and new products.
In the absence of an Indian port capable of shipping those products to the global market, development of Colombo and Trincomalee ports as alternatives and building a road to link Mannar and Rameswaram were mooted.
Without repenting over that lost opportunity, a road to link the two countries should become a reality at least now in order to uplift the Sri Lankan economy, said Bandara.
That will help the island enter the Indian as well as the European markets at a low cost, he added.
He also referred to the Mannar wind power plant project which had been entered into as a government-to-government venture by Ranil Wickremesinghe.
Its cancellation under Dissanayake gave the signal to foreign investors that investing in Sri Lanka has become risky, said Bandara.
He rejected Dissanayake’s claim of a higher unit price by Adani and said it could have been an investment not just for wind power generation, but for the entire electricity transmission structure in the northern province.
Now, who could be investing in wind power generation in Mannar and in upgrading electricity transmission in the north? he asked.
Mannar has high potential for wind and other renewable energy generation, but those cannot be tapped without investors, he added.
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