CCEA approved 5 Port projects worth 17630 crore Rupees

Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved 5 Port projects worth 17630 crore rupees on 5 February 2014. The projects are aimed at augmenting the capacity of major ports by about 151 million tonnes per annum (MTPA).

Out of 5 Port projects approved, four are container terminals and one is a multi-purpose cargo berth project in Mumbai port.

The four container terminals proposed to be built at the major ports are Kandla Port in Gujarat, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust in Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra, Kolkata Port in West Bengal and Ennore Port in Tamil Nadu.

These proposed projects will double the container handling capacity from the existing 11.57 million TEUs equivalent to 146 MTPA. TEU stands for Twenty-foot equivalent unit which is an inexact unit of cargo capacity often used to describe the capacity of container ships and container terminals.

The capacity of the multi-purpose cargo berth proposed for Mumbai Port Trust will be 4.5 MTPA to handle automobiles, iron and steel cargo etc.

Besides reducing the transaction costs by improving efficiency in handling operations, these facilities with additional capacities are expected to promote the export - import trade in the country.

The Union Ministry of Shipping has targeted to award 30 projects in the current financial year to add a capacity of about 282 MTPA at an estimated investment of over 26400 crore rupees.

As against these targets, the Shipping Ministry has already awarded 23 projects at a cost of over 9790 crore rupees for an additional capacity of 116 MTPA.

The capacity of Indian ports at present stands at a little over 1000 MTPA.

India has 12 major ports: Mumbai, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (Navi Mumbai), Kolkata, Chennai, Visakhapatanam, Cochin, Paradip, New Mangalore, Mormugao (Goa), Ennore, Tuticorin and Kandla.