Gautam Adani, chairman of the Adani Group that was chosen to develop a major Colombo port terminal project in Sri Lanka, arrived at Sri Lanka along with nine others on two special planes.
Meanwhile, Indian media The Hindu reported that Gautam Adani is scheduled to meet President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in Colombo on Monday, according to official sources in Colombo and New Delhi.
“It is a private visit and Mr. Adani is expected to meet the President to discuss the West Container Terminal project,” a senior official told The Hindu on Sunday night.
Mr. Adani’s visit comes less than a month after the Adani Group, in a virtual ceremony, signed a $500 million worth Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) agreement with its Sri Lankan partner in the project John Keells Holdings, and the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA), to jointly develop the West Container Terminal (WCT) at the Colombo Port.
According to sources in India familiar with the development, Mr. Adani “is interested in projects related to ports, power and renewable energy” in Sri Lanka.
Early this year Sri Lanka scraped trilateral agreement with India and Japan to jointly develop the East Container Terminal at the Colombo Port. However, India and west use united nation human right commission resolution and 13th amendment to pressurise Sri Lankan to accept Indian and US projects.
