Niroshan Gorakanage, General Secretary of the All Ceylon Ports General Employees’ Union, said that the decision to hand over 13 acres of land worth hundreds of millions of rupees to a Chinese company to set up a service center (warehouse complex) without a formal tender procedure was a serious fraud.

This land, which has more commercial value than the Colombo Port City land complex, is to be handed over to the relevant Chinese company at a paltry sum of Rs. 850,000 per acre per year. According to his knowledge, the value of a perch in this area has exceeded Rs. 300 million.

He said that the transfer of land owned by the port to a foreign company would endanger the jobs of about 650 port employees.

He stated that the project has been approved by the Cabinet without even obtaining a formal assessment report from the Chief Government Assessor.

Therefore, he concluded that all the trade unions in the port will launch a strong fight in the future to prevent this fraudulent transaction.