Electric-powered cranes commissioned in Sri Lanka’s CICT port terminal

The Chinese-operated Colombo International Container Terminals (CICT) in Sri Lanka’s Colombo port said it has completed a project to convert 40 diesel-operated rubber-tyred gantry cranes to electric-powered ones or E-RTGs.

The move, on which CICT invested over US$10 million, makes a major contribution to efforts by the Port of Colombo to go ‘Green’ and lead the port’s efforts to minimise environmental impact, a statement said.

The electrification of CICT’s cranes involved modification work of fitting electricity collector trolleys in the RTG cranes and constructing a Conductor bar system (Bus-Bar) in the terminal for the cranes to function with electricity.

“Recognised around the world as an innovative port technology, E-RTGs have been proven to deliver significant environmental, technological and financial benefits to terminals,” the company said.

“Their environmental benefits include reducing air and noise pollution; in economic terms they reducing operating and maintenance costs and in terms of technology represent an optimisation of productivity and performance.”

CICT’s deployment of 40 zero-emission E-RTGs at the company-managed Colombo South container terminal, results in  a 45 per cent reduction in the terminal’s overall carbon dioxide emissions and a reduction of more than 95 per cent in diesel consumption.

“This initiative demonstrates CICT’s as well as our parent company CMPort’s commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the Port of Colombo and the maritime industry as a whole,” CICT chief executive Ray Ren said.

“We believe in leading from the front in the sphere of caring for the environment, even at a time when some stakeholders in the global industry are still said to be driven by costs rather than green ethics. This is just one of several environment-related CICT projectsin the pipeline, and we intend to continue investing on initiatives to reduce emissions.”
(Colombo/Nov23/2017)