Ports  looking at Point Cruz to Ranadi sea corridor to transport containers

By Timothy Inifiri Jr.

The Solomon Islands Port Authority (SIPA) Chief Executive Officer Mr. Eranda Kotelawala said that they will be looking at implementing a sea corridor from Point Cruz to the Ranadi industrial site.

Mr. Kotelawala during the recent SICCI Manufacturing Industry Symposium said the country still faces a huge challenge when it comes to delivering containers in and out of the port and with the country having large sea around, it should look at actually using it.

“Some of the impending projects that we have for the industrial port is to implement a sea corridor. Instead of transporting containers on the road we should look at actually using this sea corridor especially from Point Cruz to Ranadi”.

“We can use barges with 100 containers onboard that will reduce 100 trucks on the road, that will reduce the trucking time, that will reduce the damages on the roads and bridges, the maintenance spots on the road and many more”, CEO Kotelawala added.

 With the current state of the roads in Honiara, Mr. Kotelawala said that it has also cost many businesses time and money.

“We are trying to reduce this time because time is money for you, and you don’t want to spend much of the time on the road and paying additional money for the trucks, so this is a matter that we are trying to work out”.

“So we should not look at using our roads all the time, our roads are narrow, we don’t have many spaces, we don’t have a back route right now and the port is right at the centre of the city right now”, he said.

Kotelawala also emphasised that if the country wants to be seen as a manufacturing hub in the region, it is not only that it looks at rest of the infrastructure, but it will also need to look at the logistic chain and how to improve it.

News@SBMOnline2023