Business | Shipping
DP World to press ahead in India
Dubai Ports World is pressing ahead with expansion plans in India and is confident of winning over local critics of a deal that has put 40 per cent of the country's container traffic in the company's hands.
- Reuters
- Published: 00:00 March 23, 2006
Dubai, Mumbai: Dubai Ports World is pressing ahead with expansion plans in India and is confident of winning over local critics of a deal that has put 40 per cent of the country's container traffic in the company's hands.
A senior Dubai Ports official said Indian criticism of its takeover of British ports operator P&O had been muted by comparison with the political firestorm that forced the company to relinquish six major ports in the United States recently.
The Indian controversy has stemmed mainly from objections that officials in one state were not informed of the $6.8 billion takeover that took the number of Indian terminals under Dubai Ports management to five.
All those terminals are on India's western coast and Ganesh Raj, senior vice-president of DP World, said the company wanted a presence in eastern India.
"We are looking at the best options available to us," said Raj, who heads the company's operations in east Africa and the Middle East.
He said there was little opportunity for port acquisitions in eastern India, but Dubai Ports would push into rail operations and special economic zones (SEZs) to ride the boom in one of the world's fastest growing major economies.
Raj sees the company's contract to develop the Kulpi economic zone in the eastern state of West Bengal as the next phase of the expansion plan. "We are looking specifically at fast tracking the SEZ project in Kulpi," he said.
Dubai Ports has long viewed Asia's third largest economy as a key opportunity, given its rapid economic expansion and growing demand for infrastructure investment.
Estimates of the amount of money needed to bring Indian ports, roads and airports to levels comparable with other Asian nations range from $150 billion to $200 billion.
India's 12 major ports are crucial to the infrastructure development drive, handling about 75 per cent of all shipping volumes. Container traffic makes up a relatively small proportion of the total but is growing by 15 per cent a year.
Raj estimates that terminals managed by DP World and P&O handle about 2.2 million 20-foot equivalent units, about 40 per cent of India's container traffic.
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