India: Mormugao Port bets Big Projects
India government-owned Mormugao has lined up ambitious approx $500 million projects that include capacity augmentation schemes as part of its expansion plans.
Mormugao Port Trust (MPT), the Centre-government owned major port at Goa has plans to award nine major projects for expansion, entailing an investment of Rs 3,141 crore, says Press Trust of India.
According to MPT Chairman Cyril C George, these projects would be implemented as soon as the approval from Ministry (Road, Transport, Highways and Shipping) are awarded. All projects would be taken up under public private partnership (PPP) mode.
The projects include six schemes for construction of berths/terminals at the port including Rs 950 crore project for development of multipurpose cargo berth and Rs 520 crore project for conversion of existing iron ore berth and ore handling plant for general cargo. There are four other projects worth Rs 810 crore for offshore liquid bulk holding scheme, general cargo berth project in lieu of ship repair yard in the harbour area, development of Vasco Bay and development of dedicated berths for Navy and Coast Guard north of Vasco Bay
In addition, there are three projects, entailing Rs 861 crore investment for deepening of approach channel for cape size vessels, construction of 4-lane road for port connectivity and creation of matching facilities to cater the proposed dry port at Belgaum, Karnataka.
MPT is among the 12 major ports owned by the Centre government. India has 12 major ports - Kandla, Mumbai, JNPT, Marmugao, New Managlore, Cochin, Chennai, Ennore, VO Chidambarnar, Visakhapatnam, Paradip and Kolkata (including Haldia) handle approximately 61 per cent of cargo traffic.
