Ports and Special Economic Zone opens new tab plans to ramp up its investment to 100 billion rupees ($1.20 billion) to boost its southern India transshipment container port, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday.
The investment in Vizhinjam port in the state of Kerala is part of the project’s second phase and is expected to be finished by 2028, the report, which cited people with knowledge of the matter, added.
Construction of the $900 million port had seen a four-month-long standstill from protests in 2022.
The port, which has strategic importance for both India and company owner Gautam Adani, an ally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will upon completion be the country’s first container transshipment hub, rivaling Dubai, Singapore and Sri Lanka, Adani Ports has said.
Container lines such as MSC Mediterranean Shipping Co., A.P. Moller – Maersk A/S, new tab, and Hapag-Lloyd, which opens a new tab are being wooed to call in at the port, Bloomberg News reported.