UAE inks $2bn infra investment agreement.

With the inking of the Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (BIPPA) agreement, which is aimed at boosting investments between India and the United Arab Emirates, the UAE is likely to invest a staggering sum worth $2 billion in the Indian infrastructure including port sector. A consortium, comprising DP World and Mumbai-based JM Baxi Group, has been selected to build and operate a new container terminal at Visakhapatnam. The consortium, which already operates the Visakhapatnam Container Terminal, was the lone bidder for the project.

The new terminal is to be built at the site of the existing terminal to accommodate larger ships, said officials. They added that the project is on a build-operate-transfer basis for a period of 30 years at an investment of about Rs 1,243cr in building a new container terminal at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) near Mumbai. The terminal is to be built next to the Nhava Sheva International Container Terminal, which DP World operates, and is expected to help ease congestion at JNPT. DP World currently operates five Indian terminals. Its Asia-Pacific and Indian subcontinent region has been the main driver of volume growth in the first six months of 2012, reporting a 12.1% increase in volumes, sources said, adding that the signing of the BIPPA had “clarified any lingering doubts with regards to investment.