CHINA Cosco-controlled Piraeus Port Authority's (PPA) plan to construct a fourth container terminal at the port has been turned down by Greece's Port Planning and Development Committee
CHINA Cosco-controlled Piraeus Port Authority's (PPA) plan to construct a fourth container terminal at the port has been turned down by Greece's Port Planning and Development Committee. The terminal project was part of a EUR800 million (US$881 million) investment master plan. PPA's master plan also includes the development of a new car terminal and cruise ship terminal, and a new shopping mall and hotels. The proposed fourth box terminal would have raised the port's annual container handling capacity to 10 million TEU, up from seven million TEU at present.
The committee approved most of the master plan that will require investment of EUR612 million, but rejected the proposed fourth terminal on the grounds that conditions for a new container terminal are not mature at the moment, reported Singapore's Splash 247.
'After a long waiting period, we obtained the approval to proceed to the implementation of significant investments that will make Piraeus the most important port in the Mediterranean and will create even more new working positions,' PPA chairman Yu Zenggang was quoted as saying.
'We hope that the competent authorities will soon review the expansion of the container terminal as it is one major investment that will establish the Piraeus port as one of the top container terminals in Europe,' he added.
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