This article is part of a daily series of MegaProjects articles. If you want to know more about PPP projects with a considerable size visit our MegaProjects section. You can receive them by email on a daily basis.

The Government of Ecuador has awarded DP World with the concession contract for the developing of the new Posorja deep water port in Guayaquil, at the delta of the Guayas River. 

The estimated for the project is US$1,200 million. 

Posorja port is currently a small fishing port in the Guayas delta, 50 km south of Guayaquil centre. In 2006, Spanish group Alianza Internacional Portuaria (Alinport) was awarded a US$450 million concession to build and operate a deepwater port with a 15 m draft in Posorja. However, works never began and the authorization for construction was later revoked.

The new contract has been awarded to DP World by direct hiring instead of following the normal procurement procedure. Therefore there has been some criticism about this irregular process.

In February, we reported that the Ecuadorian Ministry of Transport and Public Works and state-owned Dubai Port World (DP World) were about to agree a formal proposal for the construction of the project. 

Contencon, the company that run the concession of the container terminal of Guayaquil Port since 2007 has expressed its disagreement about this direct hiring process for the Posorja deep water port and has warned that is going to take legal actions against DP World for unfair competition.

The new Posorja port will move 2.5 million of containers per year and will include the construction of a specialized terminal with a with a 15 m draft. The project will be carried out on a build operate and transfer (BOT) basis

In September 2015 we published that the government of Ecuador announced a plan to develop four public private partnership (PPP) infrastructure projects including:

• Machala port, which is Ecuador's second most important port. Located in the city of Machala, Bolivar Port is the gate of the export products of the rich region of the Province of El Oro and parts of the provinces of Azuay, Canar, Guayas and Zamora and northern Peru. This port mobilizes 80% of banana production in Ecuador.

• Rio 7 highway in Huaquillas, a 95 km road that would link the northeast and northwest of El Oro province. The total project investment is estimated at US$356 million.

 The four projects plan would need an investment estimated at US$1.5 billion.