The port has an estimated cost of $700 million and is located next to a similar Chinese-run facility
The deep-sea Colombo West International Terminal is progressing well and is on track for commissioning by early next year, according to a statement from the Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF CWIT
Share
NEW DELHI, India (AFP) — India’s Adani Group has withdrawn its request for a United States government-backed loan to construct a port in Sri Lanka seen as a counter to a rival Chinese project, according to company filings.
The move comes weeks after a bombshell indictment in New York accused the conglomerate’s billionaire founder Gautam Adani of deliberately misleading international investors as part of a bribery scheme.
Subsidiary Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd. said in a Tuesday statement that it was pulling its request for a loan of $553 million from the United States International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) to build the deep-sea Colombo West International Terminal.
It said the project was “progressing well and is on track for commissioning by early next year.”
“The project will be financed through the company’s internal accruals and capital management plan,” the company added.
The port has an estimated cost of $700 million and is located next to a similar Chinese-run facility.
The loan agreement with DFC was finalized last year, with the project seen at the time as a means of countering Beijing’s rising influence in the Indian Ocean.
Sri Lanka sits astride the world’s busiest shipping route, which links the Middle East and East Asia, giving its maritime assets strategic importance.
