The State to develop Container Terminal at Tuna-Tekra in the Kutch District
Deendayal Port Authority (DPA), the No. 1 Major Port in India located in Kutch District of Gujarat, has planned Rs.5,963+ crores projects for two Mega Cargo Handling Terminals on to cater to the future requirement of the hinterland and further benefit the downstream industries around in the region.
DPA will develop these projects on a PPP model with a Concession Period of 30 years with options to renew or extend for another 20 years.
The projects offer flexibility to construct, handle more than the estimated capacity and provision for change of scope.
The Concessionaire can fix tariffs based on market conditions. The License Fee will be Rs.1/ payable from the date of award of concession.
The Container terminal is being designed to handle next-generation vessels-deeper draught vessels up to 6,000 TEUs to 21,000 TEUs with a draught of 14m to 18m, respectively.
The Estimated Cost & Optimal handling Capacity of the Terminal is Rs.4,243.64 crores and 2.19 million TEU, respectively, the Deendayal Port Authority said on 18 July 2022.
Once operational, the terminal will be well equipped to tap into the container market growth in the region with better infrastructure and a state-of-art world-class container facility.
Furthermore, the Multipurpose Cargo Berth plans to handle vessels up to 100,000 DWT to 210,000 with Vessels of Draught of 15m to 18m. The proposed facility shall be used for handling Multipurpose cargo, viz., food grains, fertilizers, coal, ores and minerals, steel cargo etc.
The estimated cost & optimal handling capacity of the terminal is Rs.1719.22 crores and 18.33 MMTPA, respectively.
Once fully operational, the port is envisaged to shift the existing handling of coal from Kandla to Tuna Tekra and cater to the future growth in Multipurpose Cargo (other than container/liquid) traffic.
Deendayal, Port Authority Chairperson S. K. Mehta said, “At Deendayal Port, we are focusing on six major strategic areas which include cargo and productivity improvement; landlord port development; port-led industrialization; coastal shipping and Ro-Ro; Ro-pax expansion; Improvement in ease of doing business and cost of doing business and Green, Sustainable and Safe Port development.
“To further aid the handling capacity, these two Mega cargo handling projects will decongest the port and reduce waiting time for handling containers and cargo.
The projects provide commercial flexibility as there will be excellent road connectivity up to Backup Area (to be constructed and maintained by DPA) with Railway Line up to the take-off point.
Additionally, it provides a common access channel dredged for design vessel of 14m Draft for CT & 15m for MCB. The berthing-deberthing and pilotage of a ship & approval of the Collector of Customs for commercial operation will be the obligation of DPA.
DPA handled 127.1 million Metric Ton of cargo with an impressive growth rate of 8.11 % in the previous year.
With the capacity addition through these mega projects, DPA will be able to fulfill its vision of handling more than 200 million Metric Ton per annum by 2030 and place itself as the number one port in cargo handling. fiinews.com
