The Hon. Bimal Rathnayake - Minister of Transport, Highways, Ports and Civil Aviation and Leader of the House of Parliament

¶ 01 Hon. Speaker, when addressing the issues at the Port of Colombo, the Port is operating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. That continues. However, container clearance wasn’t aligned like at BIA. With the steps we took, that process has now begun. For example, private sector shipping lines never worked on weekends; now, due to these changes, shipping lines do operate over weekends. I also said from the private sector side, and likewise, the Customs Department staff are now engaging with these matters. Therefore, the backlog has been largely cleared, though more improvements are needed. There was an issue, but overall as a Government we promised to engage all agencies—not only Customs but also Food Control, Plant Quarantine, and Animal Quarantine.

¶ 02 These institutions had insufficient staff and no weekend work. By now, we have recruited many officers—both contract and permanent—and filled certain vacancies within a short time. All these agencies now deploy officers 24/7 for inspections.

¶ 03 Another cause of congestion was the lack of space and time for periodic inspections. Containers were held inside. We committed to provide two acres in the Bloemendhal area from the Port, and we handed it over to Customs in early February. However, not a single container has yet been moved there. We must check reasons—e.g., if they were Food Control Department-related containers. That is another matter. But as a Government we fulfilled our obligation from the Port’s side. We also expect to set up a sort of dashboard to improve Port efficiency. Many immediate measures have been initiated. Therefore, at present there is no backlog.