KPT's Tuna satellite port plan in last lap

Kandla Port Trust’s long-planned ambitious project to develop a deep-draft satellite port at Tuna, some 20-km away from the main port, has neared fruition. Construction work on the project is likely to begin in the first half of the next year.

“We have drawn a detailed plan, estimated to cost Rs1,140 crore, and it has been sent to the government for approval. The plan would be examined by a public-private partnership assessment committee, an intra-ministerial committee headed by the Union secretary of ministry of economic affairs and then to the cabinet committee for final approval. We expect the clearance by March next year,” PD Vaghela, KPT’s new chairman from the state IAS cadre, told DNA.

He said the T-shape jetty would have four dry cargo berths to handle big draft vessels, including Panamax ones, as the draft available at Tuna Tekara would be more than 15 metres, more than the main Kandla Port.

“We have taken up Tuna project on a war footing. Though it would be a general or multiple cargo facility, it is likely to handle imported coal to meet the demand of  upcoming power projects in the country,” he said. The permitted process of inviting RFQ (request for qualification) has already been initiated and 13 proposals from private parties, all Indian, have been received. He said their next step would be shortlisting them as required under the rules for such a mega project as per the govt directives for revenue-sharing PPP models.

He said the Tuna facility would initially handle 12 million tonnes of cargo and the capacity would be doubled by private players.

Meanwhile, talking about the newly-created facility of barge jetty at the old fishing port of Tuna, a little away from the Tuna Tekara, MA Bhakarachair, deputy chairman of KPT, said the facility was now functioning well. “The draft problem has been tentatively solved with the help and co-operation of port users. We have already initiated measures to have minimum draft for handling of barges. We are in the process of issuing tenders for maintaining minimum draft by dredging and likely to undertake the dredging work shortly,” he said.

The two top executives of the port trust also said that security at Tuna was being tightened. A high-level meeting with the police, customs and fisheries department was held at Tuna last week, where it was decided that all fishing boats would be required to have licences from the fisheries department. The two said that while police would set up its immigration wing permanently at Tuna, customs too would have its men posted there.