Singapore-based PSA International, the operator of the world’s largest transshipment hub, is ramping up its presence in India with plans to expand into warehousing and form partnerships for inland container handling.
Gobu Selliaya, managing director of PSA India, said that the company is actively exploring opportunities at the proposed Vadhavan port in Maharashtra. “We have the largest terminal in Mumbai… we may want to partner with someone who has extensive inland nodes to create a complete solution,” he said. PSA is also in discussions with shipping lines, inland container depots, and container freight stations to strengthen its ecosystem.
The company is in parallel talks with train operators to leverage the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC), which is expected to be fully commissioned later this year, enhancing connectivity between Dadri in Uttar Pradesh and Jawaharlal Nehru Port (JNPT) in Navi Mumbai.
Earlier this month, PSA Mumbai inaugurated its Phase 2 expansion, doubling annual handling capacity to 4.8 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs). The milestone positions it as India’s largest container terminal. The expansion is part of PSA’s SGD 1.7 billion ($1.3 billion) investment under the public-private partnership model, marking the largest foreign direct investment from Singapore into India.
India currently handles 31–32 million TEUs annually. Highlighting growth prospects, Selliaya said, “We have a population of 1.4 billion people today. We think that that is a bit underserved.” He projected that domestic container handling capacity could grow to 50–60 million TEUs in the next 10–15 years.
These ambitions align with India’s vision to quadruple its annual port handling capacity to 10,000 million tonnes by 2047. The proposed mega ports at Vadhavan in Maharashtra and Galathea Bay in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands are seen as critical to achieving this target.
“We are very much interested in Vadhavan,” Selliaya noted, adding that PSA is keen to participate in the project under the public-private partnership model on a build-operate-transfer basis.
