Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lay the foundation stone for the Rs 7,900-crore fourth terminal at country's largest container port JNPT tomorrow situated off the financial capital's eastern seafront, a top ministry official said today.
The project is being executed by Bharat Mumbai Container Terminal, a subsidiary of Port of Singapore, on a design, built, fund, operate and transfer basis, under which Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) will get a 35.9 per cent share in revenues.
The two-phased project will see the overall container handling capacity of JNPT more than double to 10 million standard units of container from the present 4.5 million, Union Shipping Secretary Rajive Kumar said.
At present, the JNPT which was started in the 1980s, is the 31st biggest globally.
Work on the project is divided into two phases, entailing an investment of Rs 4,719 crore and Rs 3,196 crore, respectively, and work is expected to be complete by end of 2017, Kumar said.
The project involves construction of two berths of 1 km in each of the two phases, Kumar said, hinting that new land acquisition is also minimal as 70 hectares of land will be reclaimed from the sea for each of the berths.
At present, JNPT operates one of the three terminals at the port while the other two are done by D P World and APM Terminals, he said, adding that addition of the fourth terminal will mean three of the biggest port operators being present at the port.
The ceremony comes amid a growing trend of state-run major ports losing market share to the privately run non-major ports, which has resulted in Gautam Adani-led Mundra Port to emerge as the largest port by cargo handled.
To increase the efficiency of existing terminals at the port, the government has received a report from experts and is studying it at present, Kumar said.
On the announcement to build a satellite port for JNPT off the coast of Palghar district, Kumar said at present over six project studies including an environmental impact assessment is underway.
First of the reports will be received by December and it will take another 3-4 months to get the remaining reports after which work on the ambitious project will start, he said.
