GANDHIDHAM : The Concession agreement for the Project of "Development Operation and Maintenance of Container Terminal at Berth Nos. 11 & 12 at Kandla Port on PPP Mode" was signed between Kandla Port Trust (KPT) and Kandla International Container Terminal Ltd. (KICTL) on February 29, 2016.
The agreement was signed in the board room of KPT, Gandhidham, wherein Shri Ravi Parmar, IAS, Chairman, KPT, Shri Alok Singh, IRS, Dy. Chairman, KPT alongwith Head of Departments and other officers were present from the KPT side and Shri Krishna B Kotak, Chairman of J.M. Baxi Group and Shri Dhruv K Kotak, Joint Managing Director, J.M. Baxi Group, Shri R. Ravi Kumar, Sr. Vice-President, Shri Makarand Newalkar, Sr. Vice-President and Shri Amardeep Singh Parmar, Vice-President were present from KICT side.
The agreement was signed by Shri K.C. Kuncheria, Chief Mechanical Engineer, on behalf of KPT, who is the Nodal Officer for this Project and Shri Dhruv K. Kotak, Joint Managing Director, J.M. Baxi Group on behalf of KICT.
The Container Terminal at berth No 11 & 12 at Kandla Port will commence very soon. It will be a great boost to the rapidly expanding Industry in the region to have such a facility close by.
In order to revive the container traffic at Kandla, Kandla Port Trust had decided to undertake the Project to Develop, Operate Maintain a container terminal at berth Nos. 11 and 12 on PPP Mode and carried out the bidding process. International Cargo Terminals and Infrastructure Pvt Ltd (formerly United Liner Agencies of India Pvt Ltd) which is a part of the JM Baxi Group has been selected as the Operator for this Terminal after a competitive bidding process.
During the signing ceremony, Shri M.L. Bellani and Shri Mohan K. Aswani, Labour Trustees of KPT, Officials from MMD and CFS CWC and Presidents of various Trade Bodies, viz., Gandhidham Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Kandla Port Stevedores Association, Kandla Stevedores Association Ltd., Kandla Timber Association, Kandla Port Custom House Agents Association and Kandla Port Steam Ship Agents Association, were also present.
A Special Purpose Vehicle by name Kandla International Container Terminal Pvt. Ltd (KICTL) has been formed to execute the Container Terminal Project at Kandla.
J.M.Baxi & Co. Group is one of India's largest and most experienced groups in Shipping & Logistics and has been operating at almost all the ports in the Country for the last 100 years. They are also operating a state-of-the-art Container Terminal at Visakhapatnam on a 30 year BOT basis. They are also developing a multipurpose cargo berth for handling containers and clean cargo at Paradip Port on PPP basis and have also been entrusted with O&M of the Container Terminal at Haldia Dock Complex.
The estimated cost of the Project is Rs. 159.81 crores with a construction period of 12 months.
A draft of 13 metres will be made available at this berth, where vessels of size 65000-75000 DWT can be handled. The berth will have a length of 545 metres and a handling capacity of 6 lakh TEUs per annum. The KICT shall be responsible for financing, designing, construction, commissioning of the project along with operation, management and maintenance under the concession agreement. The concession period is of 30 years. The Environmental and Forest clearances are already available for this Project. The Consent to Establish (CTE) and Consent to Operate (CTO) approval for the Project have also been obtained.
The berths will be equipped with 4 Nos. of Rail Mounted Quay Cranes, 8 Nos. of Rubber Tyred Gantry Cranes, 4 Nos. of Reach Stackers and 24 Nos, of Tractor Trailers to handle containers. The Terminal will have a backup area of 18.74 hectares and 3 hectares at the berths.
The existing railway siding No 12 available behind the backup area of berth Nos. 11 and 12 will be the dedicated Railway Corridor to the container terminal. This will enhance the viability of the project by attracting rail-borne cargo.
The earlier Container Handling Terminal Project was awarded to M/s. KCTPL (erstwhile ABGKCTL) in 2006. However, due to various defaults and poor performance, the KPT had terminated the Licence Agreement by issuing Termination Notice dated 03/11/2012.
As directed by the Hon'ble High Court of Gujarat, the physical possession of the Container Terminal was taken over on 27/09/2013.
Now, after a span of 21/2 years, Traffic of Container handling at Container Terminal will resume and the KPT will once again start handling Containers in a big way, which will add to its cargo volume and diversify its cargo base.
