Govt agrees upon Rs 17,630 cr projects in the port sector

Out of the five projects approved, four are container terminals and one is a multipurpose cargo berth

The government today said it has approved Rs 17,630 crore projects in the port sector to augment the capacity of major ports by about 151 million tonnes per annum (MTPA).

"The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved five projects involving an investment of over 17,630 crore rupees to further increase the capacity of the Major Ports by 150.74 MTPA," an official statement said.

Of the five projects approved now, four are container terminals and one is a multipurpose cargo berth project in Mumbai port.

"The four container terminals are proposed in the major ports of Kandla (4.2 MTEU), Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) (4.8 MTEU), Navi Mumbai, Kolkata(1.2 MTEU) and Ennore (1.4 MTEU)," it said.

Twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) is an inexact unit of cargo capacity often used to describe the capacity of container ships and container terminals.

These proposed projects will double the container handling capacity which is at 11.57 million TEUs (Over 146 MTPA).

The capacity of the multi-purpose cargo berth proposed for Mumbai Port Trust will be 4.5 MTPA to handle automobiles, iron and steel cargo etc, among others, the statement said.

These projects will also bring the latest state of the art technology in line with the global standards, it said.

Besides reducing the transaction costs by improving efficiency in handling operations, these facilities with additional capacities are expected to promote the EXIM trade in the country, it added.

"All these five projects are at an advance stage of tendering and are expected to be awarded in the current financial year i.E. By the end of March this year," the statement said.

There has been a good response with the maximum number of 11 qualified bids for the Ennore container terminal and 7 qualified bids for the JNPT 4th container terminal.

The Ministry of Shipping had a target to award 30 projects in the current financial year to add a capacity of about 282 MTPA at an estimated investment of over Rs 26,400 crore.

As against these targets, the Ministry had already awarded 23 projects at a cost of over Rs 9,790 crore for an additional capacity of 116 MTPA.

The capacity of Indian ports stands at a little over 1,000 MTPA.

India has 12 major ports: Mumbai, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (Navi Mumbai), Kolkata, Chennai, Visakhapatanam, Cochin, Paradip, New Mangalore, Mormugao