The India Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs gave its approval for developing an offshore container terminal on a build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis at Mumbai port.
To be developed under the public-private partnership (PPP) model, the terminal would come up under a licence agreement between the Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT) and the BOT operator ¨C a consortium of Gammon India, Gammon Infrastructure and Dragados, Spain.
For this, the MbPT willprovide capital dredging and navigational aids, help in filling of Prince's & Victoria Docks, undertake laying of tracks for rail container depot, and assist in various miscellaneous works and developing environment management plan.
The project was amongst various activities listed by the MbPT in its business plan, which it has submitted to the shipping ministry under the National Maritime Development Programme (NMDP).
Under this programme, all the 12 major port trusts are required to come up with business plans for initiating projects which can be undertaken through PPP, and which would help in augmenting facilities of all the major ports in the country. And at the same time, help in providing impetus to private investment in the port sector.
The total cost of the project is estimated to be around US$312 million. The investment by the BOT operator will be $219 million and the investment by the port to carry out works under their scope will be $931 million.
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