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Supreme Court verdict on JNPT terminal project likely this month-end

The project, envisaging capacity creation to the tune of 4.8 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), was approved by the Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure in January last year and bids were subsequently called to develop it on a design, build, operate and transfer basis.

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Supreme Court verdict on JNPT terminal project likely this month-end
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The Supreme Court (SC) is likely to pronounce its verdict on the fate of the Rs7,000-crore fourth container terminal project, at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) in Mumbai, by the end of this month.

The court has heard the arguments from both, the Ministry of Shipping and the petitioner A P Moller Maersk (APM) group.
Confirming the development, R Srivastava, joint secretary (ports), told DNA, “Both parties have given their arguments in written form to the SC. We are expecting the decision to come by the end of this month.”

The project, envisaging capacity creation to the tune of 4.8 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), was approved by the Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure in January last year and bids were subsequently called to develop it on a design, build, operate and transfer basis.

In response to the bid, infrastructure majors such as DP World, Sterlite Industries, PSA International, Adani Enterprises and GVK applied for setting up the fourth container terminal. The government, however, rejected APM’s bid, which it challenged in the Bombay high court.

With the Bombay high court rejecting its plea, the company challenged it in the Supreme Court last year. Srivastava said as per the contractual requirement of the third terminal, which the company is handling at JNPT, it was bound not take up any further terminal activity.

Even if the JNPT project is awarded this fiscal, the Ministry of Shipping will be far behind its target to award 21 expansion projects at major ports, including on public-private partnership (PPP) basis in the current fiscal.

The 21 expansion projects at the major ports needed an investment of Rs14,000 crore. Till date, however, the ministry has been able to award only eight PPP capacity enhancement projects at major ports.

Major ports are the twelve projects directly under the control of the central government. Apart from litigations, security clearances by other agencies also added to the delays in the projects.

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