The Adani Ports-led Colombo port terminal project is on track and there is no reason to complain, Sirimewan Ranasinghe, chairman of Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) said on Sunday.
Adani Ports is implementing the Colombo port terminal project in a joint venture with SLPA and John Keells Holdings.
“The SLPA is satisfied with the progress on the Adani Ports-led project in Colombo,” Ranasinghe said on phone from Colombo. “We do periodic reviews and there is no reason to complain so far. This project is on track.”
Ranasinghe’s comment was in response to a query on the progress of the project. Last month, US authorities had alleged that some Adani group executives were part of a scheme to pay bribes in a power project in India.
Ranasinghe, who was appointed in October to the post, said the current dispensation’s motto is upholding transparency in every project. He said the indictment has no relation with the project in Sri Lanka.
The Colombo port terminal project is being developed to take advantage of Sri Lanka’s location on major shipping routes. The plan is to make the terminal operational in February 2025.
In November 2023, the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) announced a $553 million investment in the project. It is still conducting due diligence on the project and no funds have been disbursed so far, it is learnt.
Sri Lanka, with Anura Kumara Dissanayake as president, has shown interest in continuing with all projects agreed to with India during the past dispensation and is banking on New Delhi’s support to boost the economy.
Dissanayake, who plans to visit New Delhi in the middle of this month, has himself not spoken against the Adani port project. Many of his advisers before have felt that cancelling a big project will send the wrong signal about the investment climate in the island nation.
The Port of Colombo is the largest and busiest transhipment port in the Indian Ocean. The new terminal aims to serve the economies around the Bay of Bengal.