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Colombo: Sri Lanka, aiming to increase cargo capacity at Colombo port by half, scrapped bids for a $400 million terminal, a ministry official said.
New terms will be added and fresh bids will be called in three months, Tilak Collure, a ports ministry secretary, said in a phone interview from capital Colombo. He declined to elaborate.
Hutchison Port Holdings and PSA International, which were among five companies that bid for the 2.4 million-containers-a-year facility at Colombo's south harbour, will have to resubmit their offers, Collure said.
The companies are known to be the world's biggest port operators.
Sri Lanka wants to exploit its location to challenge Singapore and Dubai as a sea-trading hub in Asia as a civil war pares earnings from the island's leisure industry.
The Colombo port is situated on the route between the Suez Canal and the Malacca Straits that all Europe-bound ships from Asia use.
The existing three terminals at the Colombo port can handle 4.5 million standard 20-foot containers a year.
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