COLOMBO, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) -- The profitability of Sri Lanka's Colombo Port rose by 66 percent during the first half of 2025 compared to the same period last year, Minister of Transport, Highways, Ports and Civil Aviation Bimal Rathnayake told parliament on Friday.

Rathnayake noted that port activity has expanded due to developments in the Red Sea and efficiency-boosting measures introduced by the government. In the past year, the port recruited essential staff, including medical officers for quarantine.

He added that a real-time dashboard was launched to monitor port activities, while efforts are underway to accelerate the digitalization of the Customs department.

Colombo Port, the country's main commercial port, handled a record 7.78 million twenty-foot equivalent units of container throughput in 2024, according to official data. ■