The Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) will be among the top ten ports in the world in five years as its capacity will go up 130 per cent by then, Union Shipping Minister G. K. Vasan said here on Wednesday.
Speaking at a function, organised to lay the foundation for a 330-metre-long 0.8 million TEUs new container terminal at the JNPT, the Minister said the public-private partnership (PPP) model in the port sector worked well. This terminal, to be set up by DP World’s Nhava Sheva India Gateway Terminal, will come up with an investment of Rs.1,200 crore in a year. “We, at the DP World, are fast-tracking the project to commence operations in early 2015,” said Anil Singh, Managing Director, DP World Subcontinent. DP World already runs a 1.2 million TEUs terminal at the JNPT.
Mr. Vasan also awarded the fourth container terminal at the JNPT to PSA Bharat Investment Pte. Ltd., which was recently selected as the preferred bidder. This 4.8 million TEUs terminal will come up in five years with an investment of Rs.7,915 crore. With these two new terminals, the container handling capacity of the JNPT will go up to 9.7 million TEUs from 4.1 million TEUs at present.
“This is an important milestone for JNPT,” the Minister said adding that with his Ministry had achieved its targets by awarding 30 port projects this year with an investment of Rs.21,000 crore and combined capacity of 270 million tonnes.
“In the last four years, we had awarded 88 new projects with an investment of Rs.42,953 crore and capacity of 538 million tones,” he said..
