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High-Speed Ferry Reconnects India and Sri Lanka

India’s Minister for Ports, Shipping and Water Ways, Sarbananda Sonowal and Tamil Nadu Minister for Public Works and Ports, E.V. Velu flagged off the ferry service from Nagapattinam port today.

A high speed passenger ferry service between Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu to Kankesanthurai in Sri Lanka was resumed on Saturday, (October 14) after a gap of 40 years.

Union Minister for Ports, Shipping and Water Ways, Sarbananda Sonowal and Tamil Nadu Minister for Public Works and Ports, E.V. Velu flagged off the ferry service from Nagapattinam port on Saturday.

The Union minister in his inaugural address said that the operation of ferry service would increase the cultural ties between Tamil Nadu and the Northern Province of Sri Lanka. He also said that several pilgrims from Sri Lanka would be benefitted given the proximity of Nagapattinam to religious centres like Thiruvanallur, Nagore and Velankanni.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe hailed the launch of high speed ferry service between the two nations through video messages.

Modi said that the ferry service will help strengthen the cultural, commercial and diplomatic ties between the two countries. He said, “Connectivity is the central theme of the joint vision of the Indo-Sri Lanka economic partnership and we will resume the ferry service between Rameswaram and Talaimannar”.

Sri Lankan Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe said that ferry service was an important step in improving connectivity between the two countries. He said that the earlier ferry service was suspended due to the civil war (1983) in Sri Lanka.

The high speed ferry craft, Cheriyapani has 50 passengers, 12 crew members and Captain Biju George on board.

A private agency will be selling the tickets of the ferry service operated by the Shipping Corporation of India. The ferry can accommodate 150 passengers and will start from Nagapattinam at 7 a.m. and reach Kanakesanthurai by 11 a.m. The ferry will return at 1.30 pm and reach Nagapattinam by 5.30 pm.

The operations will be conducted till October 23 when the Northeast monsoon sets in and the sea would turn rough. The service will be resumed again in January 2024, according to State Port officer, Anbazhagan.

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Sri Lanka settles part of India’s credit line

State Minister for Finance Ranjith Siyambalapitiya said that $120 million was used to settle the loan taken from India, reports Susitha Fernando

Sri Lanka has used the very first tranche of the IMF loan of $330 to repay part of Indian credit line.

State Minister for Finance Ranjith Siyambalapitiya told media that $120 million was used to settle the loan taken from India.

“Over the recent past India gave credit lines to import much-needed essentials, including medicine and fuel, and we were to settle part of it on Thursday which we did it on that day itself,” the State Minister said.

“It is important that we follow the debt repayment,” he added.

Following the economic crisis and Sri Lanka defaulted on its debt
in April last year, India provided financial support of more than $4 billion, including credit lines.

Foreign Minister Dr S. Jaishankar symbolically hands over buses to Lanka Ashok Leyland to Minister of Transport, Bandula Gunawardane.

India was also one of the first countries that helped Sri Lanka to get the IMF bailout by agreeing to restructure its debt with the troubled southern neighbour.

Following China, Sri Lanka’s biggest bilateral creditor, agreeing to restructure its loans, the IMF agreed to award the conditional loan which would be given within a period of 48 months.

Sri Lanka’s financial crisis with shortages of essential items such
as food, fuel and medicine with long queues to purchase them, people took to street in March last year.

Street fights toppled Sri Lanka’s government forcing President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee the country, passing his presidency to Ranil
Wickremesinghe.

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Sri Lanka working with India on energy projects

President Ranil Wickremesinghe said Sri Lanka is working with India on renewable energy projects to make the eastern port city, Trincomalee, an energy hub, reports Susitha Fernando

Stressing the need to work with India on energy development projects, President Ranil Wickremesinghe said on Friday that Sri Lanka would not have faced an energy crisis, which lead to a political catastrophe expelling a President and a government, had Trincomalee oil tanks in the island’s eastern port city been handed over to the neighbouring country under the 2003 agreement.

Joining a special discussion on the Trincomalee District Development Plan, he said Sri Lanka is working with India on renewable energy projects to make the eastern port city, Trincomalee, an energy hub.

“Many objections were raised by the trade unions since 2003 against the provision of the oil tanks to India. Had the Trincomalee oil tank farm been given to India, we would have had fuel; we would have neither had to stay in queues nor to resort to riots. These problems arose because of the shortage of fuel. If we had given the oil tank farm to India back then, there would not have been any problems today,” Wickremesinghe contended, referring to the recent political crisis with street fights starting from March which toppled the last government leading to then President Gotabaya Rajapaksa quitting and fleeing the country.

The President recollected the objections raised when the Trincomalee oil tanks were to be handed over to India, adding that the country would not have faced a fuel crisis if the decision to provide the oil tanks had received the green light to be fully implemented.

In 2003, as the Prime Minister, Wickremesinghe worked on handing over 99 giant World War II-time tanks at Trincomalee Oil Tank Farm to Lanka Indian Oil Corporation (LIOC) PLC, an overseas venture of Indian Oil Corporation Ltd, on a 35-year lease for an annual payment of $100,000. However a section of the same Government lead by the then President Chandrika Kumaratunga was working against the decision to give all the tanks to India and protesting trade unions took to streets against Wickremesinghe’s decision.

President Wickremesinghe, who said that currently, India is discussing several energy projects with Sri Lanka, reiterated that they would not be stopped despite obstacles.

“We have to continue with the work on the Sampur Power Plant. If there are objections to it, we will have no choice but to take them directly under the government and continue with the work,” he said.

He said with the development of renewable energy with India, there would be value additions such as green hydrogen and green ammonia. “

Therefore, we need a port to export green hydrogen. As such the potential in Trincomalee should be taken into consideration.

“When considering the North, North Central and Eastern provinces the Trincomalee port should be the central hub. Perhaps, in the future, this would pave a route to Singapore. There is immense potential for such improvement,” the President noted.

He said working with India, Trincomalee should be transformed into a strategic deep water port.

“It is important that we work together with India when we plan these activities because India is located much closer to us.

“It will take another 10-15 years to achieve that development. Thailand’s development has yet to reach the western Bay of Bengal region. It is yet to kick off in Myanmar. This development has just started in Bangladesh; accordingly, work is being done in Java and Sumatra. It will become a significant port only in the next 10-15 years. Our endeavour is to make Sri Lanka a strategic port,” President Wickremesinghe said.

He also said that India has agreed to develop industries in Trincomalee region. “We should create an industrial zone. I have proposed a joint mechanism between India and Sri Lanka towards this endeavour. Then, the port will also be connected to it and we are planning to establish a joint task force for this purpose,” he said.

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