India and Sri Lanka are keen to resume ferry services "as early as next month" for greater connectivity between the people of the two countries. The resumption of the ferry services between Talaimannar and Rameswaram and Colombo and Tuticorin was one of the issues discussed by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj with her Sri Lankan counterpart Mangala Samaraweera.
India and Sri Lanka are keen to resume ferry services "as early as next month" for greater connectivity between the people of the two countries. The resumption of the ferry services between Talaimannar and Rameswaram and Colombo and Tuticorin was one of the issues discussed by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj with her Sri Lankan counterpart Mangala Samaraweera.
The issue was also discussed with Sri Lanka recently by a visiting Indian trade delegation headed by Commerce Secretary Rajeev Kher. Commenting on the bilateral talks between Swaraj and Samaraweera, Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry spokesman A M J Sadiq said both ministers were keen to see an early resumption of the ferry services.
"They were keen to see that (the services) started as early as next month," Sadiq said. The Colombo-Tuticorin ferry service, which was resumed after the end of the military conflict with the LTTE in 2009, had to be suspended because it was not commercially viable.
Sadiq said this service was operated for a while and then stopped because the operator pulled out. The Rameswaram-Talaimannar service was halted during the Lankan civil war in the 1980s.
Sadiq said there were issues before the services could be resumed.
"There are logistical issues," he said. "Both piers at Talaimannar and Rameswaram needs upgrading." "Even if Sri Lanka used the Indian credit line to do the upgrading at this end if the work is not done at Rameswaram then we will be paying interest for no reason," Sadiq said.
He, however, said the two sides were keen to resume the service for greater connectivity of the people. Swaraj visited Colombo on a two-day trip ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Sri Lanka visit on March 13 and 14. She called on President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe and held talks with her Sri Lankan counterpart on agreements to be signed during Modi's visit, the first by an Indian Prime Minister in 28 years.
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