Port of Amsterdam keen to invest in Rs 300cr cruise terminal

The Port of Amsterdam is interested in bidding for the Rs 300-crore new cruise terminal in the financial capital, Dutch Minister Cora van Nieuwenhuizen said today.

"Amsterdam (port) is bidding for that, the management of the cruise terminal (in Mumbai)," Dutch Minister for infrastructure and water management, Nieuwenhuizen, told PTI here today.

Nieuwenhuizen, who is leading a business and trade delegation to the country at present, however, said that there are no concrete investment tie-ups being evinced at present, apart from the know-how sharing and the initiatives of the Amsterdam port.

Port of Amsterdam has tied up with local company J M Baxi and Co for the project and is understood to be bidding jointly with it.

Tenders for the cruise terminal project, through which India is hoping to make inroads into the global 'cruising' market, are expected to be floated in a month's time and the winning bidder would invest Rs 100 crore in the project, a senior Mumbai Port Trust official said.

Under the contract, the city port will be building the overall structure of the terminal and expects the winning bidder to do up the interiors and other facilities, the official said.

Union Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari had laid the foundation stone for the terminal in January this year, promising to complete the 4.5 lakh sq ft facility by June 2019.

The new terminal will be replacing the current 40,000 sq ft facility which operated 57,000 passengers through 55 calls made by cruise liners last season, and will be able to handle 7 lakh passengers.

Nieuwenhuizen said the new Indian approach of replacing the red tape with red carpet "is working" and added that ports and the maritime sector have an important role to play in the country's future.

"We are India's fifth-largest foreign investor. And we certainly have a lot to offer in view of India's major infrastructure projects," she said, addressing the maiden Indo-Dutch Forum on Smart and Sustainable Port Development here.

Union Minister of State for Shipping Mansukh L Mandaviya said The Netherlands can help India on the inland waterways front as well as in dredging.

The Dutch companies renowned for their dredging expertise can use the country as a manufacturing and assembling base for dredgers, he said.

Later, speaking at the country's biggest container port JNPT, Mandaviya said the government is aiming to build six new major ports as part of the Sagarmala programme.

These include facilities at Vadhavan in Maharashtra, Enayam and Sirkazhi in Tamil Nadu, Tajpur in West Bengal, Paradip Outer Harbour in Odisha and Belekeri in Karnataka.