The Port of Melbourne has been sold to the Lonsdale consortium in a 50-year lease for $9.7 billion, which is well over the expected price, the Victorian Government has announced. 
The consortium includes the Queensland Investment Corporation, the Future Fund, and Global Infrastructure Partners. 
Legislation to lease the port passed the State Parliament in March, after months of political wrangling. 
The Government had initially expected it to fetch $7 billion. 
"To say this is a good day and this is a pleasant surprise is understatement," Treasurer Tim Pallas said. 
The proceeds of the deal will pay for the Government's promise to remove 50 of the state's worst railway level crossings. 
Pallas said $900 million would also go towards regional infrastructure and $200 million for agriculture and the rural jobs fund. 
Premier Daniel Andrews said the sale would create a windfall of thousands of jobs. 
"This is a massive vote of confidence, an almost $10 billion vote of confidence, in what is without any doubt the strongest-performing economy in our nation," he said. 
Andrews said the sale had been signed off on by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and Foreign Investment Review Board. 
"This represents extraordinary good value for Victorian taxpayers," he said. 

Source : QNA