'I won't be around to see this,' he quipped at the briefing.
The numbers are staggering. The potential length of its berth is almost equivalent to the length of Singapore island itself.

And in sharp contrast, the Singapore port operated by PSA Corp is estimated to have a capacity to handle more than 20 million container boxes each year.

The Malaysian port's maximum capacity is also a massive jump from its current capability in handling up to 5 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) under the first phase.

PTP - owned by Malaysian tycoon Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary and Maersk-Sealand of Denmark - embarked on the second phase to add another 6.5 million TEUs earlier this month.

Dredging work has begun. Under the original blueprint, PTP was expected to be developed in five phases to accommodate over 25 million TEUs eventually. Development will be carried out based on the demand of liners.
When completed in the next 20 years or so, the transhipment port will stretch from Tanjung Pelepas in south-west Johor to the Second Link bridge connecting Malaysia and Singapore.

Malaysia is banking on PTP to overtake Singapore as the main transhipment hub in the region.

Already, the three-year-old port, surrounded by mangrove swamp, has made great strides.

Syed Mokhtar managed to lure Maersk-Sealand - the world's largest shipping company - to cross over from Singapore two years ago.

Apart from selling a 30-per cent stake in PTP to Maersk-Sealand, he allowed the Danish company to have management say in the port's operations.

The publicity-shy tycoon staged another coup this year when he convinced Evergreen Marine of Taiwan to relocate from Singapore.

The two liners alone would channel more than 3 million containers through PTP annually.