CCEA okays Rs1,228cr Mumbai port OCT project

Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) today gave its approval for development of an offshore container (OCT) terminal on build, operate and transfer (BOT) basis at Mumbai Port. To be developed under public private partnership (PPP) basis, the terminal would come up under licence agreement to be entered into by Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT) with the BOT operator - a consortium of Gammon India, Gammon Infrastructure 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 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 1228 crore. The investment by the BOT operator will be Rs 862 crore and the investment by 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 exchang. Also it would facilitate Mumbai Port to bridge the capacity gap in Mumbai region along with JNPT. Apart from this, the project will help in facilitating augmented growth in trade, employment generation and increasing income. Also it would provide a cost effective and efficient gateway for imports and exports for industries in the special economic zone (SEZ).