India’s west coast state-owned Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority (JNPA) on Friday entered into a concession agreement with a consortium of JM Baxi Ports and Logistics Ltd and CMA Terminals to operate the container terminal, which was so far being handled by JNPA itself.

Among the five container terminals in JNPA, two of them are operated by Dubai’s DP World, while APM Terminals and India’s state-owned Container Corporation of India consortium manage the third one followed by Singapore’s PSA operating the fourth one.

The container terminal with two berths and a total length of 680 meters, along with a backup area of 54.74 hectares, is presently handling 9,000 TEUs (Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit) capacity vessels and with the upgradation, it can handle 12,200 TEUs capacity vessels, the JNPA statement said.

Commenting after the signing of the pact, Sanjay Sethi, JNPA Chairman, said “The concessionaire has to upgrade, operate, maintain and transfer this terminal on PPP (Public-Private Partnership) basis in two phases. JNPA will continue to develop and provide new infrastructure.”

The Phase-I of the project will be completed in 18 months from the date of award of the concession agreement. The development of Phase-II will commence after achieving 1.02 million TEUs or seven years, whichever is earlier, the statement said.
Source: Xinhua