Cabinet nod for Rs 76K-crore Vadhavan Port soon: Sarbananda Sonowal

The Centre’s ambitious port project in Dahanu, Maharashtra — the Rs 76,000-crore Vadhavan Port — will get the Union Cabinet’s green light soon, Union minister for ports, shipping, and waterways Sarbananda Sonowal said on Friday.

“The Union environment ministry has given its clearance, and within some days, we are expecting approval from the Cabinet as well,” Sonowal said. The minister was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the Global Maritime India Summit (GMIS) Stakeholder Review meeting in New Delhi.

The project is being proposed in public-private partnership (PPP) mode. Here, the Centre will seek an investment of close to Rs 38,000 crore from private operators interested in operating the proposed deep-draft port.

“The Cabinet is looking at whether the project will be approved in a phased manner (like the Great Nicobar Container Transhipment Terminal project) or in its entirety,” Sonowal said.

The estimate of Rs 76,220 crore is Rs 11,000 crore more than the previously approved amount by the Cabinet. The project had been stuck in environmental regulations for the past two years.

The Vadhavan Port has a natural draft (depth) of about 20 metres close to the shore, making it possible for it to handle bigger vessels.

Development of the Vadhavan Port will enable the movement of container vessels of 16,000-25,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) capacity. The port will provide economies of scale and reduce logistics cost, according to the Centre.

The need for development of this port has been felt as imminent, despite severe protests against the project by environmental activists and local communities, citing threats to the marine ecosystem and livelihoods. This is due to the likely saturation of capacity at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) in the near future.

Those opposing the project reportedly said that they will challenge the Environmental Appraisal Committee (EAC) order in the National Green Tribunal.

Sonowal, during the meeting, also released Sagar Aankalan guidelines for the formulation of national port rankings.

Business Standard had exclusively reported in December 2023 that the Centre was working on a port performance index to benchmark performance of state-owned major ports against their rapidly-rising private peers.

The GMIS stakeholder meeting, which saw participation from the industry and heads of all major ports, was held to take stock of the grounding of investments committed during the GMIS held in October in Mumbai.

Sonowal said that projects worth over Rs 1 trillion are already under implementation, which translates into over 10 per cent of the total memorandums of understanding (MoUs) signed during the summit.

The Centre is looking to replicate the performance of GMIS 2021, where it converted 70-80 per cent of its MoUs into investments by the industry, according to shipping secretary T.K. Ramachandran.