Shipping Min confident to award Rs 26 k cr projs this fiscal

In a bid to augment domestic port infrastructure, Shipping Ministry is set to award as many as 30 projects this fiscal, entailing Rs 26,000 crore investment, an official said today.

"Having awarded a record number of 32 projects worth Rs 6,766 crore in 2012-13 to add 136 million tonne capacity to major ports, we are confident to award another 30 projects this fiscal," a Shipping Ministry official told PTI.

These projects are designed to augment the capacity of 12 major ports by another 288 MT, taking it to over 1,000 MT by March 31, the official said.

The major ports capacity was recorded at 747.51 MT by the end of the last fiscal.

India at present has 12 Major ports - Kolkata-Halida, Paradip, Visakhapatnam, Ennore, Chennai, V O Chidambaranar (formerly Tuticorin), Cochin, New Mangalore, Mormugao, Mumbai, Jawaharlal Nehru and Kandla.

Of the 30 projects earmarked for the current fiscal, the official said that 19 schemes would be taken under public private partnership mode.

The projects awarded last fiscal included Rs 1,700 crore scheme for construction of berths and container terminal for handling cement and up-gradation of mechanical handling infrastructure, part of outer harbour project at VO Chidambaranar port.

Shipping Minister G K Vasan earlier this month had requested the VOC port authority and the concessionaires to complete all these projects on time in order to achieve the port's declared target of attaining of 85 MT capacity by the year 2015-16.

Outer Harbor Project was announced in the Budget at an estimated cost of Rs 7,500 crore to be taken up in phases for completion by 2021.

In the phase-I of the project, five berths are proposed to be constructed at an estimated cost of Rs 5,421 crore, resulting in capacity addition of 43.30 MT per annum.

With the completion of this project VOC Port will move closer to fulfilling its goal of becoming a hub port.

The capacity augmentation plans assume significance in view of major ports declining cargo.

Cargo traffic at 12 major ports in the country had declined by 2.58% at 545.68 million tonnes (MT) during 2012-13.