A state-backed Chinese agency has turn out to be the primary international proprietor of a Sri Lankan freeway, a lift for Beijing because it battles different regional powers for affect within the island nation. The cupboard on Monday awarded China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) a contract to construct a 17-kilometre (10.5-mile), four-lane freeway within the capital Colombo.
CHEC was anticipated to complete development in three years and run the freeway for 15 years earlier than transferring possession again to Sri Lanka, cupboard spokesman and power minister Udaya Gammanpila mentioned Tuesday. Officials concerned with feasibility research on the undertaking mentioned it may price as much as US$1 billion to construct.
The determination got here per week after the federal government conferred tax-free standing to the Chinese-built “Colombo Port City” — the largest single foreign investment in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka’s main opposition party SJB said the highway project could worsen the battle for influence between Beijing and regional powers such as India and Japan.
“Starting with the ports, China’s influence now moves inland,” SJB legislator Harsha de Silva informed AFP. “From a geopolitical perspective, this reveals Sri Lanka is transferring to at least one facet and that’s being pro-China.”
Sri Lanka last year scrapped a $1.5-billion, Japanese-funded light rail project, saying it was not a “cost-effective solution” for congested Colombo.
In March, the federal government supplied a strategically situated deep-sea port to India and Japan, a month after abruptly pulling out of an earlier settlement with Delhi and Tokyo to collectively develop one other terminal subsequent to a Chinese-run container jetty.
In December 2017, unable to repay an enormous Chinese mortgage, Sri Lanka allowed China Merchants Port Holdings to take over the southern Hambantota port, which straddles the world’s busiest east-west delivery route. The deal, which gave the Chinese firm a 99-year lease, raised fears about Beijing’s use of “debt traps” to exert influence abroad.
India and the United States have also expressed concerns that a Chinese foothold at Hambantota could give Beijing a military advantage in the Indian Ocean.
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