Jica To Draw Up Plan For Mumbai

An agreement was signed between the ministry of surface transport, JICA, the MBPT and the department of economic affairs in New Delhi last week, according to sources in the port trust.

JICA is the official agency responsible for implementing the technical cooperation programme of the Japanese government. The plan is expected to be ready in early 1998. JICA will begin work on the plan by early 1997.

The work document also envisages the preparation of a short-term development and and improvement plan till 2007. This will be drawn up on the basis of a feasibility study conducted by JICA.

The master plan will be based on latest trends in maritime transportation and the projections for cargo traffic through Mumbai port. It will also suggest an effective land use plan for the vast tract of land at the ports disposal. Incidentally, the port is the citys biggest landlord with about 1700 acres of land. It is sitting on prime property in the commercial area of Ballard Estate.

 

The plan will also propose steps to improve port mangement and operations.

Mumbai port is facing increasing competition from the hi-tech Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust.

It is also likely to face competition in the future from the minor ports being privatised by the state government. Tenders have already been floated for the development of two of these ports, Alewadi and Dighi. The state government has made it clear that it will be privatising another five.

Besides, Mumbai port also wants to address other long term issues like the low draft .

The short term plan will address issues like the acute shortage of container handling equipment. The port currently has only three rubber tyred gantry cranes and two ship side gantry cranes. This means that container ships without their own container handling equipment can call at only one of the six container berths.

The problem could be accentuated as the new generation of container vessels are expected to be gearless.