MANGALURU : In a move to enhance the New Mangalore Port Authority’s (NMPA) capability to serve the growing Export-Import container traffic in the hinterland, the NMPA has signed a memorandum of understanding with Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC) and Sagarmala Development Company Limited (SDCL) to develop a Container Freight Station (CFS)-cum-warehousing facility at NMPA through a special purpose vehicle (SPV).

The project is expected to be completed by June 2025, said NMPA Chairman Venkata Ramana Akkaraju, after signing the MoU with CWC MD Amit Kumar Singh and SDCL MD Dilip Kumar Gupta.

The CFS-cum-warehouse is proposed to be developed on 16.6 acres of port land at an estimated cost of Rs 125.42 crore. The contribution of the NMPA will be the cost of the land offered for the project, which comes to around Rs 44.25 crore, while the remaining amount will be comtributed equally by SDCL and CWC.

The NMPA Chairman said that NMPA has handled 1.65 lakh TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) during 2022-23 despite not having all-weather road conditions connecting the port. The port mulls over handling 1.85 lakh to 2 lakh containers during 2023-24 and 2.5 lakh to 3 lakh containers by 2024-25. The cargo and vessel related charges at NMP are competitive and economical when compared to the neighbouring major ports.

The dedicated container terminal developed by the port on PPP mode has seen phenomenal growth of 8.5  per cent in one year while handling only Full Container Load (FCL) cargo. The CFS will facilitate aggregation of Less than Container Load (LCL) cargo in addition to further growth of FCL containers.