Ever since the Rajapaksa brothers came to power in Sri Lanka, China has steadily been increasing its footprints in the island nation. On Tuesday, the Sri Lankan cabinet awarded yet another major project for building a key expressway in its capital Colombo to a Chinese firm.  

China Harbor Engineering Cooperation, a subsidiary of China’s majority state-owned Chinese Communications Construction Company (CCCC), will build an elevated expressway in Colombo, connecting the Athurugiriya Interchange and the New Kelani Bridge. 

“The Cabinet approval was granted to award the contract for the construction of the elevated highway to Kelaniya New Bridge (NKB) via Rajagiriya connecting Outer Circular Highway at Athurugiriya to the China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC),” Udaya Gammanpila, the country’s energy minister and co-spokesperson of Cabinet, was quoted as saying by Daily Mirror. 

The project will be built on a BOT ( Build, operate, and transfer) basis.  

He further added, “Project will be completed in 3 years. They have been given another 15 years to operate and earn their revenue. After 18 years, the company has to hand over the elevated highway to the Sri Lanka government.”

Significantly, the Colombo Port City project, a dream project of Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, was also awarded to the same firm

Earlier, the Sri Lankan government had awarded a renewable energy project on three of its islands in the Palk strait of the Jaffna peninsula also to a Chinese firm. However, the move hadn’t gone down well with India, which later raised objections on awarding sensitive projects to the Chinese firm in places with close proximity to Indian territory.

Later, the Indian government had even offered grant assistance as an alternative for the projects. However, it is not yet if the Sri Lankan government had taken up the offer.

Colombo’s tilt towards Bejing isn’t hidden from the world. On one hand, it goes on awarding key infrastructural projects to China, while on the other hand, it is cold-shouldering New Delhi's overtures. 

Despite assuring Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar early this year, when he visited Colombo, the Sri Lankan government went on to scrap a tripartite agreement on developing the East Container Terminal of Colombo Port. India, Japan, and Sri Lanka were to jointly develop the ECT under the agreement. 

Later, to placate Indians, Sri Lanka offered the West Container Terminal ( WCT) Port to India’s Adani Ports and SEZ Ltd. However, the WCT is of lesser strategic significance than the ECT. The Indian government later clarified that they were not involved in the project and Colombo moved independently to deal directly with Adani Ports