JNPT to commission 4th container terminal

The Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), accounting for over 58 per cent of the cargo movement in the country, has plans to commission its fourth container terminal soon.

The port has recently sought expression of interest from consultants for the preparation of a detailed project report for its fourth container terminal.

JNPT has also created a special purpose vehicle (SPV) with National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and Cidco to enhance the road connectivity to the port, by four-laning of national highway NH-4B and improving pockets of state highway SH-54 and Amra Marg. The cost of the project is estimated to be over Rs 358 crore and the project will be executed in two phases.

"We are planning to develop the fourth container terminal to meet the increasing cargo movement. The work for commissioning the fourth container terminal is expected to start in the middle of 2006, soon after the conversion of our existing bulk terminal to third container terminal. At present, we are in the process of identifying the consultants for preparation of a detailed project report for the fourth container terminal," said Ravi B Budhiraja, chairman, JNPT, to the Business Standard.

The bulk terminal of the port was constructed to handle dry bulk traffic of 3.50 metric tonne per annum (MTPA), which always performed below capacity. The terminal could not achieve its designated capacity. Whereas the container traffic through JN Port has grown consistently with an annual average growth rate of more than 25 per cent.

"As the bulk traffic was dwindling and to cater to the ever increasing container traffic, the port has taken a decision to re-develop its bulk terminal to container terminal. Eligible parties have been shortlisted for the project on built, operate and transfer (BOT) basis and the new container terminal is likely to be operational by the end of 2005," said Budhiraja.

The proposal for the conversion of the bulk terminal to container terminal includes, widening of the existing bulk berths, widening of the approaches, developing container yards in the back up area and provision of state-of-the-art facilities and equipment.

The development of facilities will be carried out in a phased manner. Estimated cost of the re-development is about Rs 900 crore.

Capacity addition through this project will be about 1.2 MTEU.

"The work for the first phase of the project, involving NH-4B and NH-4 are already in progress. The port's contribution for the roads development will be Rs 100 crore," the chairman added.

JNPT handled 31.261 million tonne of cargo during 2003-04 as against the target of 29.700 million tonne set by the Ministry of Shipping (MoS), an increase of 5.26 per cent.

The port registered a growth rate of 16.46 per cent during 2003-04, when compared with the total throughput of 26.844 million tonne handled during the year 2002-03.