| The Public Investment Board (PIB), the investment appraisal agency of the Indian government, has cleared Mumbai Port Trust’s (MbPT) Rs 1,500-crore offshore container terminal project, which was delayed for more than two years owing to security clearances.
|
| |
| Mumbai Port is expected to issue a letter of intent shortly to Gammon India-led consortium, which won the mandate for setting up the container terminal through a bidding process.
|
| |
| “The PIB clearance was a must for this project as Mumbai Port is investing 30 per cent of the total project cost as part of creating related infrastructure. With the go-ahead from the government, Mumbai Port will be able to issue a letter to Gammon India by the month-end,” a source close to the development said.
|
| |
| The PIB considers investment proposals above Rs 500 crore of central ministries with regard to their public sector undertakings (PSUs).
|
| |
| When contacted, MbPT officials said they had not received any communication from the government in this regard. Outbidding Larsen & Toubro (L&T), Gammon India has quoted highest revenue sharing to win the project.
|
| |
| Gammon has tied up with Italian company Dragados SPL and Gammon Infrastructure Project for this. The project involves setting up two container berths with a total length of 700 metres.
|
| |
| Mumbai port was, number one container handling port in the country till 1997-98 but this business now contributes only 3 per cent. After completion of two phases, this container terminal is expected to handle 1.2 million twenty foot containers per year.
|
| |
| Mumbai Port, which is underutilising its container handling capacity, handled 1.38 lakh container units in the last financial year while Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), a neighbouring port which was created to decongest MbPT, handled 3 million container units.
|
| |
| Industry analysts pointed out that this terminal would help finding the easiest shipment way for 10,000 containers stuffed at the railway yard of Mumbai Port per month.
|
| |
| Apart from these containers, several thousand containers are diverted to various other sources owing to lack of container handling infrastructure at the once-premier port, they added.
|
| |
| According to leading consultant KPMG, which has prepared master plan for MbPT, India's projected container traffic is 71.7 million TEUs (twenty foot equivalent units) by 2025-26, Maharashtra region alone contributing 12.1 million TEUs.
|
| |
| “Given the highly optimistic future outlook of container trade, Mumbai Port cannot afford to ignore this cargo commodity as part of its future plans. The city's 15 million inhabitants provide a captive market of white goods, metal products, machinery, textiles and food commodities, which primarily moves in containerised form,” KPMG opined in its report.
|
| |
| KPMG has said JNPT is expected to face capacity constraints by the year 2016-17, with the limiting container volumes being 11.67 million TEUs. |
| |
Content Guide
