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JNPT to see Rs 21,000 crore investments by 2020

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Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) will attract investments of over Rs 21,000 crore by 2020, making it one of the biggest investment destinations in the country. A Rs 3,000-crore plan to convert the existing four-lane, 45-km road connecting JNPT and the hinterland of Maharashtra into a 10-lane road is prime among them.

All this will generate additional employment for at least 1.5 lakh people. NN Kumar, chairman, JNPT, spoke to dna exclusively on this and other expansion plans, immediately after addressing a gathering of businessmen at the CII-organised Logistics Summit.

Eight of the 10 lanes will be for trucks and other vehicles, while the other two will be elevated roads for mass rapid transport vehicles, meaning buses.

Since different sections of the road have been built by different parties -- NHAI, CIDCO and JNPT -- JNPT has decided to take charge of the entire road and fund its redevelopment. The road should be ready in three years.

Since no toll will be charged, JNPT hopes to recover this investment from additional charges, container freight stations and other customers as they will automatically become key beneficiaries of this road, reducing traffic delays by several hours, if not days.

The road will address one of the three bottlenecks JNPT faces: connectivity to hinterland. The other two are the number of shipping berths and deepening of shallow waters.

The issue of shipping berths is already being addressed – first by by giving the rights of 330 metres of quayside to DPW (Dubai Port Works, which already operates one of JNPT's terminals). DPW is investing around Rs 600 crore on this front.

Secondly, an additional terminal has been given to PSA of Singapore, which will invest around Rs 8,000 crore in developing this terminal. Both extensions (by DPW and PSA) should be ready in five years, if not earlier.

As far as deepening sea waters around JNPT is concerned, port authorities have already dredged the 33-km long channels to make the draft 14 metres deep. It now plans to deepen it by another metre. While deepening the channel from 12 metres to 14 metres cost Rs 1,600 crore, deepening it by another metre will cost around Rs 3,000 crore.

"We do not have money for this," said Kumar. "So it is possible we may go in for a BOT (build operate, transfer) arrangement. BOT allows for VGF (viability gap funding) from the government. It will be an easy way to finance the channel deepening to 15 metres."

He mentioned that while the central government wants the channel to be deepened 17 metres, JNPT is sticking to 15 metres for now.

The clearing of these three chokepoints will coincide with the dedicated freight corridor (DFC) between Delhi and Mumbai. DFC will see JNPT traffic multiply several fold. Against the current 20 trains a day with 90 containers, DFC will allow some 80 trains with over 100 containers daily.

Even now, the road connecting JNPT to the hinterland witnesses huge traffic jams. Without road expansion, DFC connectivity would lead to nightmarish situations.

Thus, the DFC, additional berths, deepened channels and expanded roadway will see JNPT actually increasing its throughput from 4.2 million TEU (tonne equivalent unit) containers a year to over 10 million TEUs by 2020. "We expect additional 0.8 million TEU to be handled by DPW and another 5.8 million TEUs by PSA," explains Kumar.

JNPT will also develop a multi-modal hub, for which it will spend Rs100 crore and expects the remaining Rs 1,400 crore from private parties.

Similarly, it is developing a special economic zone (SEZ) on a 277-hectare land. While JNPT will spend invest Rs 700 crore for land development, private investors are expected to pump in the remaining Rs 3,300 crore.

That should ensure that JNPT continues to remain the largest port in the country.

 

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