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 per cent of Colombo’s transhipment volumes either originating from or destined to an Adani port terminal in India. The network impact of this partnership is significant and expected to be mutually beneficial from the string of seven container terminals across its 12 ports that Adani operates along the Indian coastline handling an annual volume of over 6 million TEUs, APSEZ said in a statement.

The partnership is expected to 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, the statement added. Karan Adani, CEO and Whole Time Director of APSEZ, said: “Any port partnership is a validation of the mutual trust between two nations and in this context, the WCT partnership is significant on several fronts. It is a continuation of the deep and mutually beneficial strategic relationship between two neighbouring nations.”