EoIs invited for JNPT harbour project

The Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust has invited expressions of interest (EoIs) from project management consultants for the Rs 600-crore project to deepen and widen the harbour.

The last date for submission of the EoIs is January 5. The port expects to increase the draft of the main harbour to 13.9 metre from the present 11 metre at the entrance of the main channel, which is shared by Mumbai and the JNPT.

The project also includes increasing the depth of the channel, which leads to the Jawaharlal Nehru Port, from 11.5 metres to 12.8 metres. According to experts, companies like JICA, RITES and WAPCOS are some of the parties which have the expertise to work as project consultants for the capital dredging project.

A deeper channel would enable the port, which at present handles vessels that can carry 4,000 TEUs, to receive vessels with a capacity of 5,000-6,000 TEUs. This means it will be possible for the port to entertain more transhipment vessels.

The port is also going ahead with another Rs 1000-crore project to convert its three existing bulk berths into container terminals as part of an integrated development project.

The projects will be executed on a priority basis under the recently announced Sagarmala Project to substantially augment the port capacity of the country.

The berth conversion project is in the final stages of the bidding process. The Tata Consultancy Service is evaluating the bids and is expected to announce the short-listed candidate by mid-January.

At present, five parties are in the fray-- consortiums lead by Maersk, Port of Singapore Authority, Evergreen-Marubeni, JM Baxi and CMA-CGM. The bidding process had been surrounded with controversy due to last minute pull out by the CDC of the United Kingdom and Nikhil Gandhi's Sea King Infrastructure from their respective consortiums lead by JM Baxi and CMA-CGM.

In the issue of disqualification of these parties, a port official said the matter had been left for TCS to decide.

For the capital dredging project, according to the detailed project report, the project is to be completed in three months for 48.57 million cubic meter of dredging.