New Delhi (NVI): The Union Cabinet today gave its “in-principle” approval for setting up of a new major port at Vadhavan near Dahanu in Maharashtra.
The total cost of the project is likely to be Rs 65,544.54 crore and it will be developed on “land lord model”, the government said in a statement today.
The all-weather port at Vadhavan, around 140 km north of Mumbai will be one of the top 10 container ports in the world. The Shipping Ministry may start the work for development of the port in the next financial year, 2020-21.
A Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) will be formed with Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) as the lead partner with equity participation equal to or more than 50% to implement the project, the Government said in a statement today after the Cabinet meeting.
The SPV will develop the port infrastructure including reclamation, construction of breakwater, besides establishing connectivity to the hinterland.
All the business activities would be undertaken under PPP mode by private developers. The position of JN Port, the biggest container port in India is 28 thin the world with a traffic of 5.1 million TEUs (Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units).
Even after the completion of 4th terminal at JN Port with a capacity increase upto10 million TEUs by 2023, it will stand as the 17th largest container port in the world.
JNPT and Mundra, the two largest container handling ports of the country (for mid size container ships only), have drafts of 15 M and 16 M respectively, while the world’s largest container handling modern deep draft ports require a draft of 18M-20M.
Maharashtra has India’s largest container port at JNPT which caters to the hinterland of Maharashtra, North Karnataka, Telangana and secondary hinterland of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, NCR, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.
The Vadhavan port has a natural draft of about 20 meters close to the shore, making it possible for it to handle bigger vessels at the port.
Development of Vadhavan port will enable call of container vessels of 16,000-25,000 TEUs capacity, giving advantages of economies of scale & reducing logistics cost.
The ever increasing size of container ships makes it imperative that a deep draft container port in West Coast of India is developed, the governmnet said today.
