Tenders for consultants for Colachel port by March

The Centre will issue tenders for appointing a consultant for the proposed transhipment port at Colachel in southern Tamil Nadu, Union Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari said here today.
The minister said Colachel on the southwestern Tamil Nadu coast, Sagar in Bengal and Wadhawan near Dahanu north of Mumbai will be the three new greenfield ports.
It can be recalled that already work on second transshipment terminal in Kerala is underway less than 70 km north of the proposed Colachel port.
The country's first transshipment terminal is also in Kerala, in the commercial capital of the state, which has been functional since February 2010 but at a lower capacity due to cabotage laws that prevent larger ships sailing through domestic waters.

"We have already initiated investments worth Rs 80,000 crore for mechanisation, modernisation and computerisation of ports under the Sagarmala project," Gadkari said at the Make in India Week here.
Colachel has deep drought of 18.5 metres, while the being developed at Vizhinjam has 20 meters.
The minister also pointed out that the Cabinet has recently approved a 20 per cent subsidy to boost shipbuilding, apart from sanctioning of infrastructure status for the shipbuilding industry.
Gadkari further said the Inland Waterway Bill will shortly get the Rajya Sabha nod, paving the way for of 111 river ports.