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Vipin V. Nair
C. J. Punnathara

Kochi , Feb. 16

CONTAINER Corporation of India Ltd (Concor) has picked up a 15-per cent stake in India Gateway Terminal Private Ltd, a company floated by Dubai Ports International (DPI), to set up and operate an international container transhipment terminal (ICTT) at Vallarpadam near Kochi.

Concor will be the preferred partner for DPI to provide rail connectivity to the hinterland from the terminal.

Concor, now participating in the construction of a new terminal at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), will invest in the development of ICTT as well.

According to Mr A.K. Kohli, Managing Director of Concor, the company will make financial investments in the project, estimated to have a total cost of $500 million. He did not quantify the proposed investments of the company in the venture.

According to Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, Executive Chairman of Dubai Ports, DPI will take over the operations and management of the Rajiv Gandhi Container Terminal (RGCT) of the Kochi port in eight weeks, as the first step towards implementing the Vallarpadam ICTT.

Mr Sulayem said DPI would pump in about $20 million in modernising RGCT by investing in quayside and yard-handling equipment and information technology systems.

Four rubber-tyred gantries and two mobile harbour cranes will be brought to the terminal to improve yard handling, truck turnaround times and quayside operations, he said.

Once RGCT achieves a volume of four lakh million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), DPI will migrate to the proposed ICTT at Vallarpadam. Construction of ICTT is expected to be completed in four years and commercial operations will begin within a year afterwards.

The first phase of ICTT will have a capacity of one million TEU and entail an investment of $135 million. It will consist of 600 metres of quay, six super post Panamax quay cranes and an on-dock railhead serviced by rail-mounted gantry cranes.

Eventually, Vallarpadam will be expanded ahead of demand to a total 1.8 km of quay and at least 16 quay cranes capable of handling the largest vessels afloat, with associated yard-handling equipment and capacity of three million TEU. The project will be financed at a 70:30 debt-equity ratio.

A consortium of banks led by the Infrastructure Development Fund Company provides the debt.

Mr Sulayem said DPI would actively market the new ICTT among shipping lines to attract traffic. "Once they know that we are here, they will come," he said. Asked about the revenue targets DPI has set for ICTT, he said, "It is too early for setting a revenue target." DPI will also be interested in participating in other projects such as the Vizhinjam port development and special economic zone, he said.

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