Equipment move for LNG plant among heaviest ever in Colombo port’s history

By J. Stanislas Pius – Wattala 

Unveiling a significant milestone in the logistics sector of Sri Lanka, among the heaviest ever equipment transport operation in the history of the Island took place a few days ago from Jan. 14-16 (inclusive) at the Colombo harbour.

The 350 MW Liquefied Natural Gas Power Plant Project in Wattala – Kerawalapitiya is a silver lining in the troubled power industry picture here in the present context of the country’s efforts to generate adequate power to meet the demand. This project has been undertaken by Sobadhanavi Limited, a fully owned subsidiary of Lakdhanavi Limited.

In terms of weight, the gas turbine for the new plant weighing 312 tonnes and the generator weighing 317 tonnes are the heaviest load ever moved in the country, sources familiar with the operation said. They were transported from Colombo Harbor to the Kerawalapitya site by Lakdhanavi, the first and largest power plant developers in Sri Lanka.

Lakdhanavi is responsible for the development, engineering design, construction, commissioning, maintenance, and operation of the new power plant.This logistics operation combined marine and road segments. Both the turbine and generator were received and unloaded to a barge at the Unity Container Terminal of the Port of Colombo and was towed by a tug to the outfall of Hamilton canal via Kelani River entering the river at its estuary.

The barge berthed at a temporary jetty specially built for the project’s purposes at the Hamilton Canal. Parallel to this, on the request of the fishermen of the area, the company took steps to increase the draft of Hamilton canal beyond the temporary jetty up to Dikovita fishery harbour to facilitate the easy movement of fishing boats as a CSR project. This has been a dire need for over 30 years.

The heavy equipment was rolled off the barge one at a time by a 21-wheel multi-axle trailer along the Hendala- Hunupitiya road and then to the power plant site at Kerawalapitiya.

Lakdhanavi Limited, which is a subsidiary of Lanka Transformers Ltd. Holdings Group, is an industry leader reputed for the construction of high quality power plants since 1996. The company undertook similar operations during the construction of the Heladhanavi and Yugadanavi power plants here and multiple power plant developments in Bangladesh.