New terminal for Mumbai port

CABINET DECIDES

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs today gave its approval for developing an offshore container terminal on a build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis at Mumbai port.

To be developed under the public-private partnership (PPP) model, the terminal would come up under a licence agreement between the Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT) and the BOT operator "" a consortium of Gammon India Ltd, Gammon Infrastructure Ltd and Dragados SPL, Spain.

For this, the MbPT would provide capital dredging and navigational aids, would help in filling of Prince's & Victoria Docks, undertake laying of tracks for rail container depot, and assist in various miscellaneous works and developing environment management plan.

The project was amongst various activities listed by the MbPT in its business plan, which it has submitted to the shipping ministry under the National Maritime Development Programme (NMDP).

Under this programme, all the 12 major port trusts are required to come up with business plans for initiating projects which can be undertaken through PPP, and which would help in augmenting facilities of all the major ports in the country.

And at the same time, help in providing impetus to private investment in the port sector.

The total cost of the project is estimated to be around Rs 1,228 crore. The investment by the BOT operator will be Rs 862 crore and the investment by the port to carry out works under their scope will be Rs 366.39 crore.

The capacity addition due to implementation of this project will be 9.6 million tones per annum.

The project would enable the port to handle large size container vessels, which will save precious foreign exchange. Also, it would facilitate the port to bridge the capacity gap in Mumbai region along with the JNPT port.