NEW DELHI: Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust has entered a new era of mega-ship calls after India’s busiest public container handler completed a dredging project that deepened its fairway to 14 meters (46 feet).
The west coast port, which set a record with the March 18 call of the 11,000 twenty-foot-equivalent unit MSC Francesca, is now gearing up to welcome the MSC Cristina with a capacity to load up to 13,800 TEUs, according to port sources.
The 2011-built Cristina will berth at DP World-operated Nhava Sheva (India) Gateway Terminal on April 1, once again allowing the Dubai-based company to demonstrate its infrastructure and operational capabilities at Indian ports.
The Cristina is about 366 meters (approximately 1,201 feet) long and has a 148,775 deadweight tonnage compared with a length of 363 meters for the Francesca. Both these ships have recently been phased into the Himalaya Express, or HEX, service between India and Europe. The fixed-day, weekly loop, which was previously branded as the ISES, is a vessel-sharing agreement between Mediterranean Shipping Co. and Shipping Corporation of India.
“DP World has always aimed at being a pioneer in the industry, seeking to introduce new services and facilities as part of our commitment to customers. NSIGT is the only terminal at JN Port to have the requisite state-of-the-art facilities to receive such modern vessels,” DP World Subcontinent Senior Vice President and Managing Director Anil Singh said, when commenting on the Francesca call.
NSIGT, which officially opened last month, is located next to DP World’s flagship Nhava Sheva International Container Terminal, or NSICT, in the JNPT complex. The new facility includes a 1,083-foot quay, a draft of 44 feet, a 68-acre storage yard, four rail-mounted quay cranes, 12 rubber-tire gantry cranes and an annual capacity of nearly 1 million TEUs.
