The Indian government is considering a major expansion of the country’s container port infrastructure through public private partnerships in a bid to boost capacity within the sector by 150m tonnes per year.
It is reportedly looking at five new projects including the construction of a fourth container terminal at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, the country’s largest container hub. The other projects being reviewed are new container terminals at Ennore, Kandla, Kolkata and a multipurpose facility at Mumbai, according to a report in Lloyds List.
A government statement said: “These projects will now be recommended for grant of final approval by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs. [They] are proposed to be awarded in the current financial year by various major ports for implementation under public private partnership mode.”
The past few years have been challenging for India’s ports, with a number of major concession deals breaking down. Only 16 projects were approved by the Indian Ministry of Shipping in 2013, well short of the government target of 30.
Between them the country’s five leading container ports handled 8.3m TEU in 2012, a rise of 5.4 per cent on the previous year.
