Adani Ports and Special Economic Zones Ltd. (APSEZ) India’s largest private Ports & Logistics company and a key subsidiary of the diversified Adani Group, received a Letter of Intent (LOI) from the Ministry of Ports
and Shipping of Sri Lanka and the Sri Lanka Ports Authority, acting on behalf of the Government of Sri Lanka, pursuant to approval from the Sri Lankan Cabinet of Ministers for the development and operations of West Container Terminal (WCT) in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
APSEZ will partner with John Keells Holdings PLC, Sri Lanka’s largest diversified conglomerate, and with the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) as a part of the consortium awarded this mandate. The WCT will be developed on a Build, Operate and Transfer basis for a period of 35 years as a public-private partnership.
WCT will have a quay length of 1400 meters and alongside depth of 20 meters, thereby making it a prime transhipment cargo destination to handle Ultra Large Container Carriers. The project is expected to boost WCT’s container handling capacity and further consolidate Sri Lanka’s locational advantage as one of the world’s top strategic nodes along the busiest global transhipment route.
The Colombo Port is already the most preferred regional hub for transhipment of Indian containers and mainline ship operators with 45% of Colombo’s transhipment volumes either originating from or destined to an Adani port terminal in India.
Adani Ports partners John Keells Holdings PLC and Sri Lankan Port Authority (SLPA) to develop the West Container Terminal (WCT) of Colombo Port in Sri Lanka on a Build, Operate and Transfer basis for a period of 35 years.
The Colombo Port is the most preferred regional hub for transhipment of Indian containers and mainline ship operators with 45% of Colombo’s transhipment volumes originating from or destined to an APSEZ terminal in India. As the first ever Indian port operator in Sri Lanka, Adani Ports will hold 51% in the terminal partnership and WCT will be developed to reach a capacity of 3.5 million TEUs.
The network impact of this partnership is significant and expected to be mutually benefitted from the string of 7 container terminals across its 12 ports that Adani operates along the Indian coastline handling an annual volume of over 6 million TEUs.
This partnership will multiply and accelerate the transhipment options that will become available to serve various shipping lines and other potential port customers across the South Asian waters, benefiting both, India and Sri Lanka in multiple ways.
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