Prime Minister Dr. Harini Amarasuriya has inaugurated the Phase II capacity expansion of the Colombo West International Terminal (CWIT), doubling the terminal’s annual handling capacity from 1.6 million to 3.2 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), according to a media release from Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSEZ), which operates the terminal.

The release is datelined 30 September in Colombo and says the Prime Minister inaugurated the expansion “today” — placing the ceremony on Wednesday, not Thursday as the Indian wire service that carried the announcement reported. A Sri Lankan account published on 1 October has since confirmed the Wednesday date; see the update below.

With the added capacity, CWIT can berth three ultra-large container vessels simultaneously. APSEZ says the expansion advances the terminal’s ambition to handle close to 25% of the Port of Colombo’s targeted 13 million TEU capacity by 2028.

The company said CWIT has handled 2 million TEUs in its first 18 months of operation, building on its earlier record as the fastest terminal in the Port of Colombo’s history to reach 1 million TEUs within its inaugural year, in 2024.

What was said

“Reaching 2 million TEUs in record time and commencing Phase II today is not just a milestone for the Port of Colombo, but a milestone for our nation’s economic future. As Sri Lanka strengthens its position at the crossroads of global trade, investments such as CWIT are creating jobs, attracting international commerce, enhancing competitiveness, and reinforcing our ambition to become the leading maritime and logistics hub of the Indian Ocean.” — Prime Minister Dr. Harini Amarasuriya

Ashwani Gupta, Whole-Time Director and CEO of APSEZ, called the doubling “a direct statement of confidence from APSEZ and from the global shipping lines,” describing Phase II as “a landmark for APSEZ’s international portfolio.”

Krishan Balendra, Chairperson of the John Keells Group, said the 2 million TEU mark in 18 months “is a strong reflection of what this partnership has been able to achieve.”

A Sri Lankan account: the Indian High Commissioner’s remarks

Added 1 October. Newswire has since filed its own report of the ceremony, the first Sri Lankan account to appear. It settles two open points in this article and adds a speaker the company release did not quote.

On the date: Newswire states the Phase 2 commissioning and 2 million TEU celebration was “held on September 30” — independently confirming APSEZ’s own dateline against the Indian wire copy that placed it on Thursday.

On the $750 million: Newswire describes the terminal as “built through a joint partnership of the Sri Lanka Ports Authority, John Keells Holdings, and Adani Ports and SEZ with an investment of approximately USD 750 million” — attaching the figure to the whole partnership and the whole terminal, not to Phase II. That supports the reading set out below rather than the wire framing of a second $750 million outlay.

Indian High Commissioner Santosh Jha addressed the event, calling CWIT a milestone model of India–Sri Lanka economic cooperation and one of the most significant infrastructure investments in Sri Lanka’s maritime sector in recent years. Reaching two million TEUs in record time, he said, reflects a combined effort of Sri Lankan and Indian expertise and capital.

Jha attributed the confidence of major global shipping lines to the terminal’s efficiency, automated technology, electric terminal vehicles, smart operating systems and 20-metre deep-water draft, and commended local skills development, job creation and what he called the significant participation of women in the terminal’s high-tech operations. He linked the terminal’s prospects to Indian growth, citing real GDP expansion of 7.8% and nearly 12% growth in investment and exports in the first quarter of India’s financial year, and said rising trade and cargo would further strengthen maritime links between the two countries.

Newswire also gives an attendance list absent from the company release: alongside the Prime Minister, Deputy Minister of Ports and Civil Aviation Janitha Ruwan Kodithuwakku, SLPA Chairman Dr. Parakrama Dissanayake, APSEZ CEO Ashwani Gupta, John Keells Holdings CEO Krishan Balendra and CWIT CEO Munish Kanwar.

Newswire is not on our verified-newsroom list, so this does not change the article’s credibility rating.

The structure behind the terminal

CWIT was developed by APSEZ, John Keells Holdings and the Sri Lanka Ports Authority under a 35-year build-operate-transfer concession, and has generated more than 3,000 direct and indirect jobs, the company said. Earlier reporting has put the equity split at 51% Adani, 34% John Keells and 15% SLPA.

It is described as Sri Lanka’s first fully automated deep-water container terminal, running fully electrified operations with zero tailpipe emissions, and has recorded 17 million safe working hours. APSEZ operates it as part of an international portfolio that also includes ports in Australia, Israel and Tanzania.

The $750 million figure needs care

APSEZ’s own release is internally inconsistent on the headline number. Its title describes the 3.2 million TEU capacity as being reached “with Total USD 750 Million Investment,” while its opening paragraph calls it “the USD 750 Mn Phase II expansion.” Gupta’s quote likewise attaches the figure to the doubling.

The weight of earlier reporting supports the first reading — that US$750 million is the whole-project cost, not Phase II alone. When the US International Development Finance Corporation committed US$553 million in 20-year financing to CWIT, that sum was described as covering the bulk of a project of roughly this size, with the balance in equity; Adani later opted out of the DFC facility and funded the terminal itself. Daily Mirror’s earlier coverage also described the completed terminal — a 1,400-metre quay at 20 metres alongside depth — as having an overall capacity of about 3.2 million TEUs from the outset, with Phase I’s 800 metres of quay delivering the initial 1.6 million.

In other words, 3.2 million TEUs is the terminal’s full design capacity now being reached, rather than a new ceiling created by a second US$750 million outlay. The wire copy that circulated on 1 October — “following a USD 750 million Phase II expansion” — invites the opposite inference. APSEZ has not published a separate Phase II-only capital figure.

One further wrinkle: CWIT’s Chief Operating Officer Iresh Siriwardena told EconomyNext in February that the terminal was targeting 3.5 million TEUs at full capacity, as we reported in May. The company now states 3.2 million. Neither figure has been reconciled publicly.

Why it matters

Colombo’s transshipment business is the port’s core: it accounts for roughly 81% of volume, with Indian cargo making up about 45% of that traffic. The port climbed to 20th in global container rankings in the first half of 2026 on 11.9% growth, but its efficiency standing on the World Bank’s Container Port Performance Index has fallen sharply over the past five years, and congestion has already cost Colombo at least one weekly service to India’s Vizhinjam port.

Added capacity at the west terminal lands while the government is separately exploring a joint venture for the East Container Terminal, with the Port Minister saying five to six shipping lines have expressed interest.

A note on sourcing

This report rests on a company media release, one Indian wire agency and one unverified Sri Lankan outlet. At the time of first writing, no Sri Lankan newsroom had filed: searches of the Daily Mirror latest-news listing, Daily FT, EconomyNext, Hiru, island.lk, Lanka Business Online, Colombo Gazette, Daily News, news.lk and Newswire returned no account of the ceremony. The announcement reached the international press through APSEZ’s release, which was picked up by Indian wire and aggregator outlets. Newswire filed its own report on the evening of 1 October, added above; it is not on our verified-newsroom list either, so this article still carries no credibility badge.

The first two sources disagreed on the date. APSEZ datelines its release 30 September and has the Prime Minister inaugurating the expansion “today”; ANI’s copy, filed on 1 October, says she did so “on Thursday,” which would be 1 October. Several other carriers of the same release are dated 30 September. We went with the company’s own dateline of Wednesday 30 September — and Newswire’s account, which states the celebration was held on September 30, now independently supports that.

Nothing in either account gives a Phase II-only investment figure, a current dwell-time or productivity figure for the expanded terminal, the number of cranes now in service, or whether the 3,000-job total includes construction roles that end with the build.

Sources