Aitken Spence seen clinching Colombo harbour deal

Aitken Spence PSA (Port of Singapore Authority) Consortium has scored the highest in the technical evaluation process bids for Sri Lanka’s largest infrastructure project, the South Container Terminal within the Colombo Port Expansion Project with US$ 187 million, the company said in a notification to the Colombo Stock Exchange.

The Colombo South Harbour Terminal is expected to have a capacity of 2.4 million Twenty-foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) which out- numbers the South Asia Gateway Terminal’s (SAGT) 1.2 million TEU capacity, where Aitken Spence PSA are to take on their largest ever project so far.

Industry sources said that the new terminal, with its deep draught, will certainly attract most of the larger and faster shipping services.

With an investment of US$ 450 million on the Colombo South Harbour Terminal, 70 percent of this would be coming from the local arm of Aitken Spence PSA. John Keells Holdings-South Asia Gateway Terminalsin partnership with Malaysian Pembinan Ridzai Berhard, Hayleys-Carsons consortium partnering CMA CGM port arm and Hutchison and Hanjin Shipping also bid for the project.

The proposed Colombo South Harbour will be located west of the present south west Breakwater in an area of approximately 600 hectares and will have 4 terminals of over 1,200m in length each to accommodate 3 berths alongside depths of 18m and provision to deepen to 23m to accommodate deeper draft vessels of the future.