)
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has said the proposed port off Dahanu in Palghar district of the state will compete for traffic with Mundra port in Gujarat promoted by industrialist Gautam Adani.
"The new port will pose competition to the Mundra port," Fadnavis told reporters here last night.
State-owned JNPT and the Maharashtra Maritime Board had earlier signed an agreement to build the port, which will have a capacity of up to 100 million tonnes.
The multi-cargo Mundra port crossed the 100-million tonne mark in 2014 and is at present the largest in the country in terms of tonnage.
The Dahanu port is being positioned as a multi-cargo port and aimed at decongesting the country's largest container port Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT).
"There is natural draught of 20 metres to receive bigger ships. A feasibility study for a satellite port has been completed internally. At present, there is only one big port in Maharashtra - JNPT. The new port will be an alternative to JNPT to decongest ship movement," Fadnavis said.
The country's 13th major port will come up at Dahanu on fully reclaimed land and the project envisaging an investment of up to Rs 6,000 crore is likely to be completed over the next three years, the Centre had said earlier.
The proposed port will be located 4.5 nautical miles off the Dahanu coast in northern Maharashtra's Palghar district, about 150 kms from Mumbai, the Chief Minister said.
The proposed site is located near Vadhwan Point and will serve as a satellite port of the Navi Mumbai-based JNPT.
Stressing on the need for a new port, Fadnavis said about 70 per cent of freight was through waterways and therefore, there was an urgent need to develop the port.
He said Union Transport and Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari was instrumental in initiating the process.
