India’s 13th Major Port to come up near Mumbai in 3 years

 

NAVI MUMBAI: Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) and  Maharashtra Maritime Board (MMB), on behalf of the Government of Maharashtra, entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to develop a new major port of close to Rs 6,000 crore in Dahanu taluka, off Vadhavan Point in Maharashtra.

 

At a function held in Mumbai on 5th June, 2015, Shri Neeraj Bansal, Chairman in-charge, JN Port in his welcome address, said, “It is a great honour for JNP and MMB to sign MoU to build Vadhavan Point, the 13th Major Port in the Country.”

 

He further said, the maritime sector is going for a major change and we will see further more new projects in the coming months.

 

The project will be operational on public private partnership model and should be a reality in up to three years, Shri Neeraj Bansal said.

 

The MOU was signed by Chairman of JNPT, Shri Neeraj Bansal and the CEO of Maharashtra Maritime Board, Shri Ashish Sharma in the presence of the Shipping Minister, Shri Nitin Gadkari and the Maharashtra Chief Minister, Shri Devendra Fadnavis and Shipping Secretary, Shri Rajive Kumar.

 

The largest Container Port JNPT will own 76 per cent in the proposed port and the remaining 24 per cent will be held by the Maharashtra Maritime Board (MMB), Union Shipping Secretary Rajive Kumar said.

 

JNPT and MMB signed an agreement for the port and Kumar exuded confidence that the project should be a reality in up to three years.

 

Union Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari said, no land will be acquired or people displaced for the port. Also, there will be no cutting down of forests since the port will come up on 2,500 acres of reclaimed land.

 

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said there were some issues because of litigation surrounding the port for nearly two decades, but congratulated the MMB for finding a way out to set up the venture. He said from 1996 onwards attempts were on build a new port in the State but the plan got stuck in litigations.

 

The proposed site is located near Vadhwan Point and will serve as a Satellite Port of JNPT based in Navi Mumbai.  Gadkari said initial studies on the project will start soon and hoped to lay the foundation stone by December.

 

Gadkari pointed out that a major port was being built in the country after 30 years and he said the port will be constructed without disturbing any habitations,  land or forests as it is being built four nautical miles into the sea.

 

A senior Government official said the Port shall have a capacity of 60-100 million tonne per annum and primarily handle containers and other "unclean" cargo like coal and will be build entirely on reclaimed land spread over 2,500 acres which is being abandoned by Mumbai Port due to local considerations.

 

Gadkari said it will help power plants located in Maharashtra get the critical coal with faster turnarounds.  Maharashtra has a 720km coastline but has only two major ports – JNPT and Mumbai Port.

 

Besides, there are private ports in the State at Dharamtar, Dighi and Jaigad.

 

The Minister also said that an International Maritime University was being  set up in the Ratnagiri and Jindal Group had already given 100 acre of land for this purpose.

 

The Ministry was also in the process of finalizing plans for the Development of river ports in the country.

 

Gadkari also said the Government was determined to end the pollution of the sea and it was committed to the cleaning of the coastal areas in Mumbai. The Government is also seriously contemplating development of ship repair yard at Kandla, Kochi and Andaman and Nicobar to minimize the cost of repairing ships abroad, he said.

 

The port would be established as a corporate port under the Companies Act, 2013 on the lines of Kamarajar Port, Ennore.

 

Jawaharlal Nehru Port, a premier port of the country handles about 40% of nation’s and 56% among Major Ports container traffic is working at its full capacity since last 6 years.

 

JN Port has 3 Container Terminals, one liquid Cargo Terminal and a shallow water berth. The Port has a cargo handling capacity of 65 MTPA at present. Two new projects namely,

 

the 4th container Terminal and a stand-alone container handling facility with a wharf length of 330 mts have already been awarded.

 

The new Project on completion would take the capacity of the Port to 132 MTPA.

 

With the commissioning of the 4th Container Terminal, JNPT would be fully saturated and possibilities of further capacity addition would be remote. During the meeting of Hon’ble Minister of Road Transport & Highways and Shipping with all Chairmen of Major Port Trust held in Mumbai on 28th May, JNPT was directed to explore the possibility of establishing Satellite Port around Mumbai site with deep natural drafts. Hence, in order to meet the growing requirements of Export-Import Trade and the vast industrial hinterland in Western & Northern India including the state of Maharashtra, it was imperative to establish a satellite port with good natural draft preferably on the Maharashtra Coast.

 

Accordingly, after a detailed evaluation of various possible sites, the area off Vadhawan between 1.5 NM south of Vadhawan Point to 3.3NM south of Dahanu river mouth clear of fishing activity has been identified as an ideal location for development of a Satellite Port for JNPT.

 

This location has advantage that it is clear of fishing activities, deep water depth contour of more than 20 metres is only 4.5 NM from the coast and 2.5 NM from the rocky patches, good rail and road connectivity nearby and main and importantly, there will not be necessity for large land acquisition.