India: Adani Group to invest further $1.2 billion into Kerala deep-sea port

Adani Group's ports business will invest an extra $1.2 billion in a long-delayed deep-sea facility in India's southern state of Kerala, its local government said on Thursday.

The deal comes after Adani Group's 10 listed companies saw as much as $34 billion wiped off their total market value in the wake of Chairman Gautam Adani's indictment last week by US authorities for his role in an alleged bribery scheme.

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Adani Group has dismissed the allegations as "baseless".

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Vizhinjam, at India's southern tip, is strategically important due to its proximity to international shipping routes and will help it compete with Singapore and Sri Lanka.

The agreement draws a line under long-standing arbitration initiated by the state port authorities against Adani Ports for a five-year delay in completing the project's first phase.

Trial operations of the first phase of the project, which had a capacity of 1 million TEU (twenty-foot equivalent), began in July, and full-scale commercial operations are expected to begin next month, officials said earlier.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said in a post on X that as the port's second and third phases near completion by 2028, it will see an investment of $1.2 billion which will expand the capacity of the facility to 3 million TEU.

Adani Ports, which is part of billionaire Gautam Adani's conglomerate, aimed to start operations in 2018 but faced delays due to land acquisition problems as local people protested against the port, which they said would lead to coastal erosion.

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