APM Terminals, the Danish concessionaire in charge of Apapa Container Terminal, has concluded plans to invest fresh $135 million (N21.3 billion) to expand its capacity at the port.

This is coming at a time when the entire shipping community is in need of an efficient port facility that can support the already existing Apapa and Tin-Can Island port facilities that are currently over stretched.

The company, which is set to hold the groundbreaking ceremony of the project today at the port, said that the $135 million project will bring the total capital investment of the concessionaire at Apapa container terminal to $330 million (N52.1 billion) since the Federal Government concessioned the terminal to it in 2006.

Dallas Hampton, the managing director of APM Terminals, Apapa, told our correspondent exclusively that the current expansion project- Phase 3 - is to finalise the development and maximise the capacity of Apapa container terminal.

"The investment is necessary in order to ensure there is sufficient port capacity for container operations in Lagos at least until the year 2017", he said.

According to him, the project will include development of new container stacking areas such as the old Sunshine Oil and Dangote Cement areas, which were part of the original Apapa container terminal that was concessioned but was never handed over to APMT until recently.

The project will also convert the terminal to full Rubber Gantry Crane (yard crane) operations; ensure the acquisition of container handling equipment; build new customer service building; new employee amenities buildings and office for Nigeria Customs.

He further said that the new expansion project will enable APM Terminal to build a new Customs container inspection area.

"It will also include state of the art terminal control systems including a satellite based container positioning system", he said.

It would be recalled that APM Terminals recently announced that it is also perfecting plans to build a mega deep seaport in the Badagry axis of Lagos to also consolidate on its investment in the West African busiest and emerging market.