The Hindu Business Line : JNPT board may decide on 4th terminal on Nov 30

THE Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust board is expected to take a decision on a fourth container terminal, estimated to cost Rs 4,500 crore, at its next meeting on November 30.

The box terminal, with a quay length of 2,000 metres — larger than the first three terminals put together at 1,992 metres — is to be built in two phases.

As per the feasibility report submitted by Consulting Engineering Services India Ltd to JNPT earlier this month, the first phase will see the development of a 1,000-metre quay length by 2009 at an investment of Rs 2,000 crore; the remaining portion, in a continuum, will be developed by 2012 at Rs 2,500 crore.

Mr R.T. Revankar, Chief Manager (Operations), JNPT, told Business Line, "The terminal will be developed on BOT model. If everything goes as per plan, the project could reach the global tendering stage in about six months time".

However, high on the priority for JNPT would be the relocation of the 300-metre liquid terminal set up at Rs 155 crore in 2002 as a joint venture between Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) and Indian Oil Corporation (IOC). The relocation by a distance of over a kilometre from the present site will be far from easy, given that there are some 15 pipelines in operation.

JNPT is now grappling with this problem, as the 300-metre waterfront is located at the very beginning of what would make the first 1,000 metres of the fourth terminal. Otherwise, the new terminal will have to be developed from the farthest end and the cost involved in such an initiative could be much higher.

As per the agreement signed by JNPT with the BPCL-IOC combine, the liquid terminal will need to be relocated to a marine chemical terminal as and when it comes up. According to Mr R.K. Mehra, General Manager, Logistics, BPCL, any such relocation would be quite time-consuming and can only be done in phases.

"There has been no official word from JNPT on this issue till date. In fact, JNPT has given us the approval to lay a crude pipeline at this terminal only recently. The new evacuation line is to be laid by ONGC for the coastal movement of its crude," said Mr Mehra.

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