Northern MPs rally for Kankesanthurairevival

Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishad Bathiudeen meets Northern MPs on revival of KKS Factory in Jaffna on 25 April.

Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishad Bathiudeen, joined by some Northern MPs and his officials, visits the Kanksanathurai Cement Factory site on 24 April

One of Sri Lanka’s well known post-independent manufacturing legends is returning to life as broad consensus was clinched for its revival on 25 April in the northern city of Jaffna. 

Leading Northern MPs have welcomed the revival of the defunct KankesanthuraiCement Factory (KCF) in the Jaffna peninsula last week. Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishad Bathiudeen, under whose purview KCF falls, was canvassing support from several Members of Parliament from the North as well as Northern Provincial Council members at a meeting held at the Jaffna District Secretariat on 25 April. Minister Bathiudeen, accompanied by his ministry officials, toured the defunct KCF’s site located in Kankesanthuraion 24 April.

The Lanka Cement factory, also in Kankasanturai (the KKS Factory), was a pioneering northern industrial development project in the post-independent era. The KKS Factory commenced its operations in 1950 under the Department of Industries and was converted to a Public Corporation in 1956, having being named Kankasan Cement Works. The existence of limestone deposits in Kankseanthurai for cement production was a major incentive for establishing the factory in KKS. It is reported that the huge limestone deposits exceeding 80 Million MT in the area are sufficient for the manufacture of cement for another 100 years – even if they are extracted at a rate of 3,500 MTs a day. Previously, the UAE-based Ras Al Khaimah Cement Company (RAKCC) expressed interest in reviving the KCF with a US$ 100 million investment. In 2011/12, a high level decision was taken to amalgamate Sri Lanka Cement Corporation (SLCC) with Lanka Cement Limited (LCL). SLCC and LCL were jointly planning to resume bagging operations at the Kankesanthurai factory.

On 25 April, TNA MPs S. Sritharan,  Dharmalingam Siddarthan (PLOTE Leader), E Saravanabhavan, SLFP MP Angajan Ramanathan welcomed Minister Bathiudeen’s initiative. Joining them were NPC Chairman Kandiya Sivagnanam MP, NPC Minister of Agriculture Ponnuthurai Ainkaranesan, and NPC MPs Ariyakutty Paransothy, E Arnold, and Yazzen Jawahir. 

Jaffna GA N. Vethanayahan, the Northern press and online publisher KT Rajasingham also joined the pecial meeting on KCF.

During the session, TNA MPs also forwarded several proposals on KCF’s revival to Minister Bathiudeen. They expressed their support for a speedier revival of KCF and welcomed the new opportunities and livelihoods it will result in for the Northern populace. They made a suggestion that Government import clinker (cement raw material) if feasible, rather than quarrying Kankesanthurai limestone deposits due to possible environmental hazards to Kankesanthurai.

Minister Bathiudeen assured the gathering that the revived KCF process would be different, and added: “We thank you for your support. The recommencement will not only bring in new livelihoods, but will upgrade our cement manufacturing. We have to install all the machines from scratch. From the very start, we plan to do it with international standards. We will revive it with environmentally friendly, latest cement manufacturing technologies.”

The latest cement manufacturing plants being commissioned now follow the “green cement factory concept.” This concept could considerably reduce the carbon footprint issue found in ordinary cement manufacturing as well. If green technology in implemented, KKS will be the first Sri Lankan state-of-the-art cement plant to entirely produce using green tech.

The KKS factory closed for production in 1991 due to the raging Northern war. At the time of its closure its production capacity was 115,000 MT, with around 400 factory employees losing their livelihoods. It was estimated in 2012 that the cost of recommissioning the KKS factory was to be around Rs. 1.5 billion.  KKS factory is placed under Lanka Cement Limited (LCL), and KKS is the only ‘factory’ (but defunct) found under LCL.