The Chennai Port Trust is planning a Chennai Mega Terminal for container handling at an estimated cost of Rs 3,050 crore. The terminal to come up in five years will be India’s first deep water terminal capable of handling ultra large container ships of capacity 13,000-15,000 TEUs (twenty foot equivalent units), the port trust Chairman, Mr. K. Suresh, told Business Line today.

Two new breakwaters for a total length of 4 km — one as extension of the existing outer arm and the other extending from the fishing harbour breakwater — will be constructed. The consequent silting will reclaim about 300 hectares of land. The mega terminal will be built on a 100-hectare portion of it.

The existing channel has a depth of 19-metre. The basin will also be dredged to 18 metres depth, so that ships may come through the channel, pass into the basin and then to the wharfs. The dredged material will be used for reclamation.

By 2017, the container volume through the Chennai port will increase to 50 lakh TEUs a year from the 8-lakh TEUs last year, thanks to increased level of economic activity. The second terminal is to be operated by PSA-Sical.

The mega terminal will come up on the north of Bharathi Dock Basin and have an alongside depth of 18 metre; continuous quay length of 2 km.

The terminal will be on a build, own and transfer basis. Breakwater construction will cost Rs 1,200 crore and reclamation of land Rs 207 crore, and these two will be taken up by the port trust.