The world's fourth-largest port, Antwerp Port plans to set up a greenfield dockyard on the west coast and is in the process of identifying a suitable site, a top Antwerp official said.
"We are in talks with the (Indian) government as well as various port authorities and private companies to set up an all-weather port on the west coast of India," Antwerp President Marc Van Peel told PTI on the sidelines of a CII conference here.
While, he would not divulge details on the ground that things were still in the nascent stage, Peel said the proposed facility would primarily cater to the import and export of auto and auto components and container cargo.
"It would take some months for the equity structure to be finalised, after which we will look for land on the west coast," Peel said, adding "port operations will be outsourced under a revenue-sharing arrangement."
Antwerp Port could help Indian companies with its expertise in container handling, bulk cargo handling as also in petrochemicals, he said.
According to Peel, several Belgium-based logistics companies were interested in investing in India's logistics sector and Antwerp Port is aimed to establish more business-to-business (B2B) links between logistics companies of the two countries.
Antwerp is the largest European import and export port for India. It has a market share of over 30 per cent and handles around 4.2 million tonnes of Indian cargo.
