Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT) will float the tender for the development of container terminal at Diamond Harbour on Friday.

The Diamond Harbour container terminal would be built under the PPP (public-private partnership) model, according to the KoPT Chairman, Mr M.L. Meena.

“The land and connectivity issues relating to the Diamond Harbour container terminal have been addressed and we will start the tendering process on Friday,” Mr Meena said while talking to newspersons on the sidelines of a workshop on enhancing trade facilitation in South Asia, jointly organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry and IFC here on Wednesday.

Expressions of interest

Maersk Line, DP World and PSA, Singapore are some of the companies that have expressed interest in the project, he said.

The proposed terminal was expected to handle up to one million twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) containers annually. At present, Kolkata port handles 5.26 lakh TEU containers a year.

The project has been stuck for the last few years due to allotment of only 43 acres out of about 125 acres required to build the terminal.

The Union Cabinet had recently approved the transfer of the piece of defence land at Diamond Harbour to KoPT. This cleared the last land-related hurdle for the proposed project.

Land reclamation

“We have received about 45 acres of defence land, 30 acres from the Ministry of Shipping and another 40 acres we plan to reclaim from the river on its bank,” he pointed out.

KoPT also plans to reclaim 2,000 acres at Sagar in the first phase. “We had engaged RITES to conduct a feasibility study and we have got an initial report of the study. Tenders have already been put in place for the project and the work should begin post-monsoon,” he said.

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