Mormugao port in Goa lines up Rs 3,141 cr projects

As part of its expansion plans, the Centre-owned major port at Goa, Mormugao, has lined up ambitious Rs 3,141 crore projects that include capacity augmentation schemes.
Mormugao Port Trust (MPT) has plans to award nine major projects for expansion, entailing an investment of Rs 3,141 crore, its Chairman Cyril C George told PTI.
"These projects shall have to be implemented on approval from Ministry (Road, Transport, Highways and Shipping) and awarded through PPP (public private partnership) mode, he said.
MPT is among the 12 major ports owned by the Centre.
He said the projects include six schemes for construction of berths/terminals at the port including Rs 950 crore project for development of multipurpose cargo berth and Rs 520 crore project for conversion of existing iron ore berth and ore handling plant for general cargo.

There are four other projects worth Rs 810 crore for offshore liquid bulk holding scheme, general cargo berth project in lieu of ship repair yard in the harbour area, development of Vasco Bay and development of dedicated berths for Navy and Coast Guard north of Vasco Bay, he said.

In addition, there are three projects, entailing Rs 861 crore investment for deepening of approach channel for cape size vessels, construction of 4-lane road for port connectivity and creation of matching facilities to cater the proposed dry port at Belgaum, Karnataka, George added.
Elaborating steps to promote cruise shipping, the Chairman said, "MPT has already constructed berth for cruise ships and a dedicated cruise terminal building will be constructed shortly at a cost of Rs 8.79 crore for which Grants have been obtained from Ministry of Tourism. Building is expected to complete by March 2016."

"Cruise tourism which is promoted by the Port in a big way hugely benefits the tourism industry with considerable multiplier effects," he said, adding the port contributes significantly to the state's economic growth since the direct beneficiaries are the industries .
The present capacity of the Port is 43.76 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) and it handled 11.74 million tonnes (MT) traffic in 2013-14.
In 2014-15, it handled 9.04 MT traffic till November while traffic for the current fiscal is projected at 15.50 MT.
India has 12 major ports - Kandla, Mumbai, JNPT, Marmugao, New Managlore, Cochin, Chennai, Ennore, VO Chidambarnar, Visakhapatnam, Paradip and Kolkata (including Haldia) handle approximately 61 per cent of cargo traffic.