Private players to invest Rs 750 cr.
Despite slowdown on part of port users opting to reduce their import and export consignments in the past couple of months, the New Mangalore Port Trust (NMPT), which manages the country’s ninth major port at Mangalore on the west coast, is going ahead with its proposed plan to build five new berths at the port.
The new berths are being added under the public private paticipation (PPP) model at an estimated investment of Rs 1,000 crore in the next three years.
P Tamilvanan, Chairman, NMPT said, “The port is committed to create additional infrastructure for the smooth handling of all types of cargo as per the implementation of National Maritime Development Programme (NMDP).
The economic slowdown has not made any major impact on our operations so far. To cope up with the increase in the number of vessels calling at the port, We need to provide necessary infrastructure.”
While two out of five new berths are being constructed by the port trust for multiple users, three other berths are being built by port users as their captive berths. For two berths NMPT will spend Rs 242 crore, whereas the investment from private parties is estimated at Rs 732 crore. Among these berths, one berth will be dedicated for handling container cargo alone.
“Our container traffic has been growing very well. During the first eight months of this fiscal, we have recorded 50 per cent increase in the container traffic at 20,479 TEUs. To cater to the growing needs of container operators, we have now planned to build an exclusive berth for container cargo which will be built under the PPP mode.” Tamilvanan told Business Standard.
He said the container berth is estimated to cost Rs 350 crore for which NMPT has received expression of interest (EoI) from nine global companies. The work will be taken up during the second phase of expansion, he said.
As part of its immediate expansion plans, the port is going ahead with the construction of a dedicated berth to handle coal for Udupi Power Corporation Limited (UPCL), which is building a 1,000-Mw thermal power plant at Padubidri. UPCL is pumping in about Rs 230 crore for the berth which will handle 3 million tonne coal per annum.
The port is also planning to build another berth through its internal accruals for handling petroleum products for Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) at Oil Dock Arm at an investment of Rs 95 rore which will handle an additional traffic of 3 million tonnes per annum. It is also planning to build a bulk cargo handling berth, mainly for iron ore and coal, at an investment of Rs 147 crore.
The fifth new berth being developed is for captive use of Suzlon which plans to export fabricated wind mills. This berth is being built at an investment of Rs 152 crore.
In addition to five new berths, the port is also augmenting cargo handling capacity by procuring Harbour Crane at a cost of Rs 15 crore and developing bunkering facilities at the port for supply of fuel to ships berthed at the port.
During the year 2007-08, NMPT registered 12.4 per cent growth in its cargo traffic at 36.02 million tonnes and expects to maintain similar growth in the current financial year.