In Port News 15/04/2015
With major terminal operators such as DP World and Singapore’s PSA expanding their facilities in the port, India’s Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) has announced plans to raise funds for the expansion of a key six-lane evacuation corridor into 12 lanes over the next two years.
The widening of the evacuation corridor is one of the three major bottlenecks that JNPT faces, causing delays within the port as shippers struggle to get containers into the hinterland. The port is also planning to dredge the channel from 14m to 15m to accommodate larger container ships.
Neeraj Bansal, deputy chairman of JNPT told India’s Financial Chronicle that the company would fund the US $480-million projects through foreign loans.
“We are looking at foreign loans since we have a natural hedge in terms of dollar income and the rates are almost seven per cent lower than the domestic rate. This would be a huge saving on our investments,” he said.
The expansion of the evacuation corridor is essential to the long-term viability of the port, the largest container port in India. Singapore’s PSA terminal operator is developing a fourth terminal at the port, with construction expected to be complete by 2018.
That work will add 5.8-million teu to the port’s current capacity, while DP World is expanding its own terminal at the port to accommodate an additional 800,000-teu by the end of 2016.
“We expect DP World to start partial commissioning by May 15, 2015 which would add around 400,000-teu to our total capacity of 4.5-million teu,” Bansal said.
