L Radhakrishnan, Chairman of the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) informed that the port authority would float new tender for the rebidding of its Rs 8,000 crore fourth terminal project next month.
He said the project, which is now bifurcated into two, will increase the portÂ’s capacity by over 5.2 million standard container units or TEUs as against the earlier 4.8 million TEUs.
The port authority would float a fresh tender because a consortium of ABG Ports and SingaporeÂ’s PSA International, which earlier bagged the project, declined to sign concession agreement within the stipulated deadline.
To make up for the delay, the Union shipping ministry had last month announced a revised plan under which two successful bidders will simultaneously start the construction to save time and money. The revised plan will bring down the construction time from eight years to three years, Radhakrishnan said.
JNPT, which at present operates one of the three terminals by itself at the port, has worked at 117 percent capacity during the ongoing 2012-13, and already handled 1 million TEUs, Radhakrishnan said.
He also said that the port may handle 1.2 million TEUs of container cargo in 2012-13 as against the installed 1.1 million TEUs. The port handled nearly 60 percent of the total container traffic in the country and is increasingly facing competition, and is losing market share to private ports coming up elsewhere on the coastline, like Mundra.
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