Gujarat Maritime Board to rope in consultants to identify potential port sites in the state

Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB) on Wednesday said it is in the process of engaging a consultant to identify potential sites to develop new ports in the state.

The move is expected to give a push to proposals on port development in Gujarat, including the one from the Centre to set up a second major port in the state, after Kandla.

“For the last couple of years, there is a proposal from the Centre to set up a major port in Gujarat. Both the governments are in discussion on the issue. We are in the process of engaging a consultant who could identify potential sites to develop new ports in Gujarat,” GMB chairman, Pankaj Kumar told news agencies.

GMB can always recommend potential sites to develop a port in Gujarat, official sources in GMB said, adding that Mott Mac Donald is likely to be appointed as the consultant for the purpose of potential site identification in the state.

In the Maritime Agenda 2010-2020, the Government of India (GoI) has suggested to create a port capacity of around 3.2 billion tonnes to handle the expected traffic of about 2.5 billion tonnes by 2020.

The agenda, a perspective plan of the union shipping ministry for the present decade, is to develop two new major ports one each on east and west coasts.

The capacity of Indian ports has reached 1.16 billion tonnes. There are 13 major ports in India including Kandla in Gujarat.