SLPA completes Container Handling Equipment Upgrade Project

The Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) last week completed its Container Handling Equipment (CHE) Upgrade Project worth over $ 100 million by receiving the final consignment of 50 yard tractors.

The previous consignments consisted of ship-to-shore cranes and Rubber-Tyred-Gantry (RTG) cranes used for transferring containers between stacks in the yard.

The CHE upgrade project which kicked off in mid 2009 consisted of three phases. Under Phase I, the SLPA received three ship-to-shore cranes and six RTG cranes from Zhenhua Port Machinery Co., Ltd. (ZPMC) in China in April 2011. Under phase II, in November 2011, it received another three ship-to-shore cranes and 24 RTG cranes from the same company in China and under phase III SLPA received 50 yard tractors from Terberg Tractors in Malaysia in December 2011.  Almost all the ship-to-shore cranes and RTGs have now been deployed for operation in SLPA-controlled Jaye Container Terminal (JCT).   The crane supplier, Zhenhua Port Machinery Co. Ltd. (ZPMC) in Shanghai, China, is the world’s top manufacturer of port machinery, which includes a wide range of equipment from container cranes and RTGs to floating cranes, engineering vessels and large steel bridge structures.

The special key handing over ceremony of the final consignment of 50 yard tractors held at JCT, marked with the handing over of a ceremonial key to Deputy Minister of Ports and Highways Rohitha Abeygunawardana in the presence of SLPA Chairman Dr. Priyath B. Wickrama and SLPA Managing Director Capt. Nihal Keppetipola by Premium International Managing Director/CEO Prasantha Kularatna and Group General Manager Wesak Wijeratne, the exclusive local agents of Terberg Tractors Malaysia.