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Hambantota හම්බන්තොට அம்பாந்தோட்டை | |
|---|---|
 Hambantota Administrative Complex | |
| Nickname: Hamba City | |
  Hambantota Location in Sri Lanka | |
| Coordinates:06°07′28″N81°07′21″E / 6.12444°N 81.12250°E /6.12444; 81.12250 | |
| Country | Sri Lanka |
| Province | Southern Province |
| District | Hambantota District |
| Government | |
| • Type | Municipal Council |
| • Mayor | vacant |
| Elevation | 1 m (3 ft) |
| Population (2012) | |
• Total | 57,264 |
| Time zone | +05:30 |
| Postal Code | 82xxx |
| Area codes | 047 |
Hambantota (Sinhala:හම්බන්තොට,Tamil:அம்பாந்தோட்டை) is the main city inHambantota District,Southern Province,Sri Lanka.
This underdeveloped area was hit hard by the2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and is undergoing a number of major development projects including the construction of a newsea port andinternational airport finished in 2013. These projects and others such asHambantota Cricket Stadium are said to form part of the government's plan to transform Hambantota into the second major urban hub of Sri Lanka, away fromColombo.[1]
When the Kingdom ofRuhuna was established it received many travellers and traders fromSiam,China andIndonesia who sought anchorage in the natural harbor atGodawaya,Ambalantota. The ships or large boats these traders travelled in were called "Sampans" andthota means port or anchorage so the port where sampans anchor came to be known asSampantota. After some time the area came to be calledHambantota.[2]
Hambantota is derived from 'Sampan Thota' – the harbour used byMalay sea going Sampans which traversed the southern seas in the 1400s well before the European colonisers arrived.
The prominentMalay community part of the population is said to be partly descended from seafarers from the Malay Archipelago who travelled through the Magampura port, and over time settled down.
The presence of a pre-existing Malay community prompted the British colonial Government to disband and settle soldiers of a Malay Regiment which had fought with the British in the Kandyan wars atKirinda near Hambantota. After the arrival of the European colonialists, and the focus of the Galle harbour, Hambantota went into quiet decline.
Hambantota District is part of the traditional south known as Ruhuna. In ancient times this region, especially Hambantota and the neighboring areas was the centre of a flourishing civilization. Historical evidence reveals that the region in that era had fertile fields and a stupendous irrigation network. Hambantota was known by many namesMahagama,Ruhuna andDolos dahas rata.
About 200 BC, thefirst Kingdom of Sri Lanka was flourishing in the north central region ofAnuradhapura.
After a personal dispute with his brother,King Devanampiyatissa of Anuradhapura,King Mahanaga established theKingdom of Ruhuna in the south of the island. This region played a vital role in building the nation as well as nurturing theSri Lankan Buddhist culture. Close to Hambantota, the large temple ofTissamaharama was built to house a sacred tooth relic.[3]
Around the years of 1801 and 1803, the British built aMartello tower on the tip of the rocky headland alongside the lighthouse overlooking the sea at Hambantota. The builder was a Captain Goper, who built the tower on the site of an earlier Dutch earthen fort. The tower was restored in 1999, and in the past, formed part of an office of the Hambantota Kachcheri where the Land Registry branch was housed. Today it houses a fisheries museum.
From 2 August to 9 September 1803, an Ensign J. Prendergast of the regiment of Ceylon native infantry was in command of the British colony at Hambantota during aKandian attack that he was able to repel with the assistance of thesnow shipMinerva.[4] Earlier,HMS Wilhelmina had touched there and left off eight men from the Royal Artillery to reinforce him.[5] This detachment participated in Prendergast's successful defense of the colony.[6] If the tower at Hambantota was at all involved in repelling any attack this would be one of the only cases in which a British Martello tower had been involved in combat.
Leonard Woolf, future husband ofVirginia Woolf, was the British colonial administrator at Hambantota between 1908 and 1911.
The2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami devastated Hambantota, and reportedly killed more than 4500 people.[7]
Hambantota features atropical wet and dry climate (As) under theKöppen climate classification. There is no truedry season, but there is significantly less rain from January through March and again from June through August. The heaviest rain falls in October and November. The city sees on average roughly 1,050 millimetres (41 in) of precipitation annually. Average temperatures in Hambantota change little throughout the year, ranging from 26.3 °C (79.3 °F) in January to 28.1 °C (82.6 °F) in April and May.
| Climate data for Hambantota (1991–2020, extremes 1869–2021) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 34.7 (94.5) | 35.1 (95.2) | 36.0 (96.8) | 37.5 (99.5) | 36.4 (97.5) | 37.2 (99.0) | 36.2 (97.2) | 39.2 (102.6) | 36.0 (96.8) | 36.9 (98.4) | 36.7 (98.1) | 34.8 (94.6) | 39.2 (102.6) |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 30.9 (87.6) | 31.5 (88.7) | 31.9 (89.4) | 31.9 (89.4) | 31.2 (88.2) | 31.2 (88.2) | 31.6 (88.9) | 30.9 (87.6) | 30.5 (86.9) | 30.7 (87.3) | 30.6 (87.1) | 30.4 (86.7) | 31.1 (88.0) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | 27.1 (80.8) | 27.5 (81.5) | 28.4 (83.1) | 28.7 (83.7) | 28.6 (83.5) | 28.4 (83.1) | 28.4 (83.1) | 28.0 (82.4) | 27.8 (82.0) | 27.7 (81.9) | 27.2 (81.0) | 27.1 (80.8) | 27.9 (82.2) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 23.3 (73.9) | 23.6 (74.5) | 24.3 (75.7) | 25.3 (77.5) | 26.0 (78.8) | 25.6 (78.1) | 25.2 (77.4) | 25.0 (77.0) | 24.9 (76.8) | 24.6 (76.3) | 24.1 (75.4) | 23.7 (74.7) | 24.6 (76.3) |
| Record low °C (°F) | 17.7 (63.9) | 15.6 (60.1) | 17.4 (63.3) | 18.9 (66.0) | 19.5 (67.1) | 21.2 (70.2) | 21.2 (70.2) | 20.1 (68.2) | 20.6 (69.1) | 20.2 (68.4) | 19.6 (67.3) | 18.2 (64.8) | 15.6 (60.1) |
| Averageprecipitation mm (inches) | 68.4 (2.69) | 47.4 (1.87) | 47.0 (1.85) | 92.3 (3.63) | 73.1 (2.88) | 41.2 (1.62) | 30.8 (1.21) | 59.4 (2.34) | 100.0 (3.94) | 128.5 (5.06) | 221.8 (8.73) | 132.1 (5.20) | 1,041.7 (41.01) |
| Average precipitation days(≥ 1.0 mm) | 5.3 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 6.8 | 6.9 | 5.6 | 4.3 | 6.3 | 8.3 | 10.1 | 13.0 | 9.4 | 84.2 |
| Averagerelative humidity (%)(at Daytime) | 71 | 71 | 72 | 75 | 78 | 77 | 75 | 76 | 77 | 76 | 77 | 76 | 75 |
| Mean monthlysunshine hours | 207.7 | 200.6 | 248.0 | 237.0 | 235.6 | 201.0 | 204.6 | 201.5 | 207.0 | 192.2 | 189.0 | 217.0 | 2,541.2 |
| Mean dailysunshine hours | 6.7 | 7.1 | 8.0 | 7.9 | 7.6 | 6.7 | 6.6 | 6.5 | 6.9 | 6.2 | 6.3 | 7.0 | 7.0 |
| Source 1:NOAA[8] | |||||||||||||
| Source 2:Deutscher Wetterdienst (precipitation days, 1968–1990 and sun, 1962–1977),[9] Meteo Climat (record highs and lows)[10] | |||||||||||||
Hambantota Town isBuddhist majority.Islam is the second largest religion in the town. There are also small numbers ofChristians andHindus.Sinhalese people form the majority of the town's population followed bySri Lankan Malays who make up 30% of the total population.[11]
Acement grinding and bagging factory is being set up, as well asfertiliser bagging plants. Large salt plains are a prominent feature of Hambantota. The town is a major producer of salt.[3] A Special Economic Zone of 6,100 hectares (15,000 acres) has been proposed by Prime MinisterRanil Wickremesinghe, out of which approximately 500 hectares (1,235 acres) will be situated in Hambantota to buildfactories,LNG plants andrefineries while the rest will be inMonaragala,Embilipitiya andMatara.[13][14][15] A Vocational training Center was opened in 2017 by Prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe with China to train the workforce needed for the SEZs.[16] Wickramasinghe also came into an agreement with state-owned China Merchants Port Holdings to lease 70 per cent stake of the strategically-located Hambantota port at $1.12 billion, opening Hambantota to theBelt and Road Initiative.[17]
Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport (MRIA) is located in the town of Mattala, 18 km (11 mi) north of Hambantota. Opened in March 2013, it is the secondinternational airport in Sri Lanka afterBandaranaike International Airport inColombo.[18] TheWeerawila Airport is also located nearby.[19]
A2 highway connects Colombo with Hambantota town throughGalle andMatara. TheSouthern Expressway from Kottawa to Matara will be connected to Hambantota via Beliatta.
Construction work started in 2006 on theMatara-Kataragama Railway Line project, abroad gauge railway being implemented at an estimated cost of $91 million.[20]
TheHambantota Wind Farm is the firstwind farm in Sri Lanka (there are two more commercial wind farms).[21] It's a pilot project to test wind power generation in the island nation.[22]Wind energy development faces immense obstacles such as poor roads and an unstablepower grid.With the transmission network development plan ofCEB, first ever 220kV grid substation is under construction in Hambantota, it will be connected to the National Grid by 2022.CHINT Electric is the Main Contractor andMinel Lanka is the National Contractor that carried out design, civil construction and electrical installation works. This substation will be handling 500 MVA with 6 units of 220/132/33 kV 83.33 MVA power transformers fromTirathai.[23]
Hambantota is the selected site for a new international port, thePort of Hambantota. It was scheduled to be built in three phases, with the first phase due to be completed by the end of 2010 at a cost of $360 million.[24] As part of the port, a $550 milliontax-free port zone is being started, with companies inIndia,China,Russia andDubai expressing interest in setting upshipbuilding, ship-repair andwarehousing facilities in the zone. The port officially opened on November 18, 2010, at the end of the first phase of construction.[25] When all phases are fully complete, it will be able to berth 33 vessels, which would make it the biggest port in South Asia.[26]
Bunkering facility: 14 tanks (8 for oil, 3 for aviation fuel and 3 for LP gas) with a total capacity of 80,000 m3 (2,800,000 cu ft).[27] But in the whole of 2012 only 34 ships berthed at Hambantota, compared with 3,667 ships at theport of Colombo.[25] Sri Lanka was still heavily in debt to China for the cost of the port and with so little traffic, was unable to service the debt.[28] In 2017 China was given a 99-year lease for the port in exchange for $1.1 billion.[29]
The involvement of Chinese companies in the development of Hambantota port have provoked claims by some analysts that it is part of China'sString of Pearls strategy. Other analysts have argued that it would not be in Sri Lanka's interests to allow the Chinese navy access to the port and in any event the exposed nature of the port would make it of dubious value to China in time of conflict.[30]
In November 2019,PresidentGotabaya Rajapaksa indicated that the Sri Lankan government would try to undo the 99-year lease of the port and return to the original loan repayment schedule.[29][31] As of August 2020 the 99-year lease was still in place.[32]
Hambantota contains theMahinda Rajapaksa International Stadium[33] for sports activities. It has a capacity of 35,000 seats and was built for the2011 Cricket World Cup. The cost of this project is an estimated Rs. 900 million (US$7.86m).Sri Lanka Cricket is seeking relief from its debts incurred in building infrastructure for the 2011 Cricket World Cup.[1]
Magam Ruhunupura International Conference Hall (MRICH) was built for local and international events. The MRICH, situated in a 28-acre plot of land in Siribopura, is Sri Lanka's second international conference hall. The main hall has 1,500 seats and there are three additional halls with aseating capacity of 250 each. The conference hall is fully equipped with modern technical facilities and a vehicle park for 400 vehicles and a helipad for helicopter landing.[34]
On 31 March 2010, a surprise bid was made for the2018 Commonwealth Games by Hambantota. Hambantota is undergoing a major face lift since the tsunami. On 10 November 2011, the Hambantota bidders claimed they had already secured enough votes to win the hosting rights.[35] However, on 11 November it was officially announced that Australia'sGold Coast had won the rights to host the games.[36][37]
Hambantota istwinned withGuangzhou, China, since 2007.[38]
We would like them to give it back," Ajith Nivard Cabraal, a former central bank governor and an economic adviser to Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, said in an interview at his home in a Colombo suburb. "The ideal situation would be to go back to status quo. We pay back the loan in due course in the way that we had originally agreed without any disturbance at all.
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