Feasibility study on land connectivity with India in final stages, says Sri Lankan President Wickremesinghe

Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe has said that the feasibility study on proposed land connectivity between India and Sri Lanka is in final stages.

Wickremesinghe said that the preliminary work is over the final phase would also be completed soon, according to PTI.

In July 2023, during a visit to India, Wickremesinghe had discussed the development of a land bridge between the two countries in a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The proposal for land connectivity had come from Sri Lanka, said New Delhi at the time.

The proposal includes making a land connection from India to Sri Lanka’s Trincomalee and Colombo ports, according to Deccan Herald.

The PTI further reported that the proposed land connectivity is likely to be discussed during Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar’s visit to the island nation next week. While Sri Lanka had said that Jaishankar would arrive in the country on a visit on June 20, there has been no confirmation from New Delhi so far.

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Officials in Sri Lanka confirmed to the news agency that all Indian projects in the island nation, including the Adani group’s wind power project in Mannar in the country’s northeast and the creation of an industrial zone in the port of Trincomalee in the country’s east, would be discussed during Jaishankar’s visit.

Separately, Fisheries Minister Sri Lankan Douglas Devananda told local media that the country would raise the issue what he said to be “illegal fishing” in Sri Lankan waters by Indian fisherfolk.

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The issue of fishing in the waters between India and Sri Lanka has been a contentious one for a long time. The fisherfolk from both the countries are often accused of trespassing into other’s waters and are at times apprehended as well. The Palk Strait, the narrow strip of water between India’s Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka, is a rich fishing area that’s used by fisherfolk from both the countries.