Dubai Ports (DP) World will soon float a tender for the design of its planned $450 million container terminal in Kochi in the southern Indian state of Kerala.

Another tender for the project’s main construction will follow, says DP World chief executive officer Mohammad Sharaf.
“We’ve completed borehole surveys. In a couple of months we’ll issue a tender for the design,” he said.
DP World’s investment in India is part of its $3 billion-plus spending plan that covers new container terminals at Yarimca in Turkey and Qingdao in China. It confirmed it would invest $300 million in a container terminal in Djibouti.
The company signed an agreement with the Kochi Port Trust in February last year to build, develop and operate a container transshipment terminal at Vallarpadam in Kerala.
DP World handles about half of India’s container throughput since acquiring Britain’s Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O) recently. It has smoothly taken over P&O’s business at Indian ports, Sharaf said.
He said there were no monopoly concerns or procedural issues related to the acquisition in India.