Vadhavan Port Tenders In Next Three Months, Land Acquisition Underway

This is significant step forward in the development of the port, aimed at enhancing maritime infrastructure and boosting economic growth, especially as the project was mired in several controversies and faced environment related challenges over the last two decades.

The port authority has managed to tick all the boxes right, as far as approvals are concerned, and plans to invite tenders for the reclamation of land and construction of breakwater at the port by August, said Unmesh Wagh, chairman of JNPA.

“We plan to do that early, as companies participating will require at least six to eight months’ time to mobilise resources and even start the work after the tender. We do not want any escalation due to delays,” Wagh told NDTV Profit.

JNPA has already identified the quarries and received approval for sourcing the sand and rocks for land reclamation and breakwater. “We will require 200 million cubic meters of sand for reclaimation of land and around 75 million metric tonnes of rocks for setting up the breakwater,” Wagh said.

However, before the work starts on reclamation and breakwater, there are steps taken on immediate basis to acquire land for road connectivity to the nearest highway. National Highways Authority of India will start work on land acquisition for setting up a 20 km road connecting the nearest highway. Separately, railways will set up a 12 km railway siding connecting to the dedicated freight corridor, he said.

Once operational, Vadhavan Port will be one of the ten largest ports in the world at 298 million tonnes of annual cargo handling capacity. The project will be funded through a joint venture between JNPA and Maharashtra Maritime Board in the ratio of 76:24.

The first phase will require Rs 43,600 crore, where the equity contribution will be Rs 13,000 crore.

“We do not see any challenge in funding the project as all the major lenders are willing to participate in funding the project. In fact, some lenders want to fund the entire project themselves,” said Wagh.

Some of the prominent lenders are Rural Electrification Corp., Power Finance Corp., and Japanese International Cooperation Agency among all the major banks in the country, he said.