Port city concept for Colombo

A port city is an extension to the port, in order to acquire the advantageous facilities of the port and the port background to shape up the environment of the city surrounded by port. This is not a novel concept where many countries are adapting this principle to achieve their economic and leisure goals.

Baltimore Port City in United States of America is one of the greatest port cities where tourists from all over the world have a great concern. The Colombo Port is in the process of changing to a port city concept with the latest innovations and additions to the port and port suburb itself.

At the movement, the port proper is expanding to accommodate the high flow of maritime traffic from all over the world. At present, the country enjoys the 13th position in the world among busiest transhipment sea ports.

The port city concept is surrounded by history, leisure, water front, fun and port-related activities like commercial development, transportation, warehousing, packaging, etc. Now, Colombo is changing rapidly to achieve port city status to become one of the greatest port cities in the world.

Evolution of the port city

The evolution of the port city has described in different ways in different schools of thought. But, J.H. Bird, who is a famous Transport Geographer from the UK, has given a theory titled ‘Any Port Concept,’ based on the development of the UK ports.

The respective theory describes in five stages with the inception of the port and process of the evolution takes place until it becomes a port city. Generally, port establishes with the furthest point of the land which connects to the sea where it gives the access for the sailing ships. That is the initial geographic requirement of the port. Then it develops with the necessary working facilities, warehousing facilities transportation facilities and hinterland facilities, etc.

Colombo Port had been started on the same theory by colonial powers. Their initial requirement was to transport commodities out of the country to different markets in the world, while requirements were brought in. This had been the concept prevailing during that time in the world under colonial powers.

But these ports in the region are barely networked to exchange or transfer the respective products of the country. Subsequently, many requirements came to the port with the introduction of steam ships, diesel ships and heavy crude oil and bulk carriers. Then the ports were upgraded and expanded to meet the latest innovations of the industry.

Colombo Port during the colonial era

However, certain innovation of the maritime industry faces limitations. Therefore, countries adapted different other methods to address the growing demand and latest innovations and the port city was the outcome of that demand. This stage is called specialisation in Bird’s ‘Any Port Theory’.

Now Colombo is facing the specialisation stage. It is specialising for container handling, grain handling, petroleum handling, bunkering, ship repairing, commercial development, water front parks, housing complexes and other related trading and warehousing facilities.

According to famous Transportation Geographer, B.S. Hoyle (1988) who proposed another “any type” model, which instead of stressing the port infrastructure development, emphasises the changing linkages between the port and the city. One of these urban linkages is the development of old port sites for other urban uses, such as Docklands in London and Harbour front in Baltimore. The final outcome is the port city.

Significance

This port city concept targets many facets in global business. Port handling, port-related businesses, warehousing, packaging, tourism and history are some of the fast moving businesses in the world which can benefit by port city concept.

Further, Colombo too, will have to change to address the above core business areas to reap the real benefits of the concept. Therefore, reclaiming and developing of the present South Harbour and reclaiming of the new Galle Face area are compulsory innovations in the concept.

The historic part is the most important aspect, which should be highlighted under the tourism concept. The Colombo Port has more than 500 years of history with the arrival of the Portuguese. There are many buildings and related historical places dating down to 500 years. But due to unplanned development and commercial interests, this valuable history has destroyed, neglected and decayed rapidly.

This is the main point which Government should emphasise to target tourist attraction from the western world. In England, Bristol Port, Liverpool Port, London Port and Southampton Port are famous for history among the tourists. The main attraction for these port cities are the historic values of the respective port city areas. Also, they are promoting the water front, water sports and related other activities while giving prominence to the port activities.

Baltimore Port City is quite different and they are more focused on the concept of water front and other leisure, and sports activities developed in the area with the port city. Therefore, Sri Lanka can learn lessons from Baltimore and other various British Port cities and other ports in the world as model port cities. Having these novel concepts in the management process, Sri Lanka can achieve many advantages in tangible and intangible sectors.

Conclusion

In the above paragraphs, we have discussed the port city concept, evolution of ports and how other countries are functioning with this system to achieve their national goals. Sri Lanka too will be able to achieve this benefit to develop the tourism in this country and to develop the maritime business in the country while developing a greater image to the country. It needs to apply necessary market strategies, like promotion, price and products to market the concept and facilities.

The country can take examples from ports like Singapore, which in order to promote the port announced the free port concept, which is duty free and in turn they lured the whole world to the Singapore Port. Having these innovative concepts, one day Sri Lanka will be able to convert Colombo City as one of the world cities.

(The writer is a specialist in transportation systems and management. He presently conducts lectures on the subject for the Transportation and Logistics Management Degree and Masters in Maritime Safety and Environmental Management in CINEC Maritime University. He had published many articles on transportation and management and is presently working at the Central Bank.)