JNPT to incease capacity fivefold
November 14, 2011
The chairman of Mumbai’s Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust says that JNPT has plans to increase its capacity fivefold in the next eight to 10 years. Chairman L Radhakrishnan told the Indian press on Wednesday that the port’s objective is to expand to 20m teu in annual capacity in phases over the period, from its current capacity of 4.5m teu per year.
The port has come under heavy criticism because of its massive congestion problem. Congestion is endemic to all Indian ports, but is particularly bad at JNPT.
In the financial year from April 2010 to March 2011, JNPT handled about 4.3m teu, a rise of only 5% on 4.1m teu in 2009. At the same time, India’s gross domestic product grew by around 8%. At present, JNPT handles about 50%-60% of the total container trade in India.
JNPT is in the process of floating a tender to potential partners to dredge the harbour’s channel to a depth of 14 m, according to local press reports. The cost of the dredging would be Rs16bn ($320m).
In a report in IFW’s sister publication Lloyd’s List, Radhakrishnan also noted JNPT’s plans, previously announced, to develop a fourth container terminal with a capacity of 4.8m teu per year over the next three to four years, for about Rs80bn. The contract to develop the terminal has been awarded to Singapore’s PSA.
JNPT has long held plans to acquire greenfield land at Nhava Sheva, an island near by, and add another 8m teu-10m teu in capacity. The comments today were the first time that the trust set a rough timeline for this raft of projects.
Courtesy of IFW
