NEW DELHI: India’s Ministry of Shipping has drawn up an ambitious list of nearly 140 public-private-partnership contracts involving a total investment of about Rs. 83,000 crore (approximately $13 billion) for awarding at a three-day investor conference scheduled to begin April 14 in Mumbai.
The investment initiative, called “Maritime India Summit 2016,” is designed to showcase the potential for investment in the country’s ports and related infrastructure sector. The action plan is also a followup to the union government’s much-publicized “sagar-mala project,” which calls for heavy investments in port-led development and connectivity improvement projects.
Authorities plan to conclude 18 investment proposals for Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, which accounts for the majority of the containerized freight handled at India’s major public ports. Most notably, JNPT and the Maharashtra Maritime Board will reach a formal agreement under which the two public organizations together plan to spend Rs. 9,167 crore on the construction of a new deep-water, satellite port at Vadhawan, about 56 miles north of Mumbai.
Other approved proposals lined up for the top port include a Rs. 182 crore investment in the acquisition of 15 new rubber-tire gantry cranes from Sany Heavy Industry Co., a Rs. 128 crore joint venture with Japan’s NEC Corporation for the set up of a logistics data bank that aims to track the movement of containers and capital investment participation from major port-based services providers in the development of a free trade warehousing zone at the harbor where the Port of Singapore Authority will also set up a unit. In addition, there are a number of port-based industrial clusters at JNPT’s new dry port site in Jalna.
Although the JNPT administration has rolled out a spate of proactive measures and eased cargo processing procedures during the past year, congestion continues to be a major concern for ocean carriers and shippers on the back of volume surges and labor troubles.
Officials at the shipping ministry are also looking to sign up a flurry of contracts for other major state-owned ports, covering new cargo handling facilities, modernization schemes, landside/hinterland connectivity infrastructure and port-led industrial units.
Chennai Port Trust will join the southern wing of Indian Railways to build an automobile-handling hub at Wallajabad at a cost of Rs. 98 crore. Tuticorin will begin work on a dedicated berth for coastal cargo, while Visakhapatnam will sign a deal with its existing concessionaire—a consortium comprising Mumbai-based J.M. Baxi Group and DP World—for a berth extension project entailing an investment of about Rs. 635 crore.
At the high-profile investment summit, potential investors will also be presented with other investment opportunities in the country’s maritime sector. Outlining the investor program agenda, the shipping ministry said major port authorities have awarded projects worth Rs. 25,000 crore during the past two years that will add an annual port capacity of about 317 million tons.
Besides, efforts are under way to deregulate tariff rates at private terminals and work out a new model concession agreement for build-operate-transfer projects in order to help draw greater investor interest, officials said.
