Transport
From The Report: Sri Lanka 2019
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Sri Lanka has a total of 12,290 km of national highways, 1561 km of rail tracks, two international airports and four seaports. In order to boost the local economy and quality of life, the cultivation of an effective, reliable and cost-efficient transport system has been a priority for successive governments, albeit with varying degrees of success. Improvement plans in the pipeline include light rail transit and bus rapid transit systems in Colombo; the new transport system and port within Port City Colombo; the expansion of the Port of Colombo through the East Container Terminal; an overhaul of road and railway infrastructure; and improved airport infrastructure and technology. Sri Lanka is encouraging more public-private partnerships (PPPs) and created a new PPP Unit within the Ministry of Finance in order to facilitate more private sector involvement in infrastructure development. This chapter contains an interview with Bai Jingtao, Managing Director, China Merchants Port Holdings Company.

Articles from this Chapter

Overview

Smooth road ahead: Closer international relations and accelerating infrastructure development lead to big projects in the pipeline
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Sri Lanka has a total of 12,290 km of national highways, 1561 km of rail tracks, two international airports and four seaports. As part of the efforts to boost the local economy and quality of life, the cultivation of an effective, reliable and cost-efficient transport system has been a priority for successive governments, albeit with varying degrees of success. Improvement plans in the pipeline include light rail transit (LRT) and bus rapid transit (BRT) systems in Colombo; the new transport…

Analysis

On track to success: New light rail transit system promises to alleviate traffic congestion and travel times in Colombo
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As the number of private vehicles on the road in Colombo continues to grow, travelling even 20 km by car can take up to two or three hours. Traffic congestion has become a serious issue, leading to a number of problems such as long transit times, environmental pollution, loss of productivity and decreased quality of life. Heavy traffic jams are therefore considerable economic and social problems for Sri Lanka. In an effort to address these issues and to modernise the capital city, in early…

Interview

Striking a balance: Jingtao Bai, Managing Director, China Merchants Port Holdings Company, on growing priorities and services
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Interview:Jingtao Bai What are the most challenging aspects of serving both large multinationals and local companies? JINGTAO BAI: In terms of balancing between serving large multinationals and local companies, we do not envisage any serious challenges. In fact, the first anchor customer that we are serving in our quest to be an energy hub for the region is a 100% locally owned company. Regarding multinationals, we are receiving many inquiries about setting up a variety of heavy and light…