JNPT awards Rs 6,700 cr port project to PSA-ABG
The country's largest Rs 6,700 crore port project for building a fourth terminal at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) has been awarded to a consortium of Port of Singapore Authority (PSA) and ABG Ports, an official said today.
The project, the single largest foreign direct investment (FDI) in the port sector, was awarded by JNPT, which is one of the country's 13 major Centre-owned ports.
"The Rs 6,700 crore project for building fourth terminal at JNPT has been awarded to PSA consortium. This is the largest port project in the country," Joint Secretary, Shipping, Rakesh Shrivastava said.
The PSA-led consortium that emerged as the highest bidder for the contract in July, had agreed to share half of the revenues with the government, a record earnings sharing arrangement offered at any Indian port by a private player, sources said.
The project got delayed as last month some of the trustees had raised doubts over the performance of ABG at Kandla port in Gujarat where it is jointly operating a terminal with PSA, sources added.
They added that a committee was set up by JNPT, headed by its Deputy chairman NN Kumar, to look into ABG's performance as container traffic at Kandla had suffered a sharp fall during the past six years. It submitted its report today.
Apart from PSA consortium, DP World, Adani Group and Maerskled APM Terminals had also bid for the JNPT project in October 2010.