JNPT said it may be forced to defer its Rs3,000-cr container terminal project if there was no work on the Delhi-Mumbai rail-freight corridor.
MUMBAI: Ahead of the rail budget, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) on Sunday said it may be forced to defer its Rs3,000-crore fourth container terminal project if there was no forward movement on the Delhi-Mumbai rail-freight corridor.
"We want to know the shape of the freight corridor. Any delay may force us to postpone the project as we will be faced with evacuation problems if the corridor does not take off on time," JNPT deputy chairperson Maya Sinha said here.
JNPT presently accounts for 58 per cent of India's container traffic and the fourth container terminal will enhance its capacity to 100 MT from the present 33.2 MT.
The project is scheduled to be completed by 2011-12. The fourth container terminal has been designed in such a manner that its completion is co-terminus with completion of the Delhi-Mumbai rail freight corridor.
The ambitious Rs66,000 crore corridor project aims to connect the four metro cities and in the first phase the Delhi -Mumbai and Delhi-Kolkata freight corridors are expected to be taken up at Rs22,000 crore with Japanese assistance.
The rail budget on Monday is widely expected to announce the start of the first phase of the project.
Sinha, however, said though successful completion of the project will require the freight corridor to be operational before the container terminal project could start functioning, JNPT was going ahead fine-tuning its plans.
"We have already started working on the project," she said.
UTI Advisory Bank is the consultant for the project which will be undertaken on the Public-Private-Partnership basis.
The government has drawn up an ambitious Rs55,000 crore plan for port modernisation under the National Maritime
Development Programme.
Of this, Rs7,278-crore has been earmarked for JNPT, out of which Rs1,967-crore will be through the port's own internal resources and Rs4,238 crore from the private sector.
Other entiities such as CIDCO, PWD and others are expected to contribute the remaining amount.
Phase I of the NMDP is expected to be completed by 2008-09 and Phase II by 2011-12. Apart from container terminals, JNPT is to extend its berth length at Nhava Sheva International Container Terminal by 330 metres to accommodate two medium-sized ships at Rs450 crore.
This project, also a part of NMDP, will be completed by 2008-09.
The compounded annual growth rate projected for container traffic is put at 18.31 per cent for all ports in the country.
Besides, JNPT's fourth container terminal there are proposals to set up other terminals at Ennore and Kandla as well, with the feasibility study for Ennore completed.
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