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New Mangalore Port Authority (NMPA) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC) and Sagarmala Development Company Ltd (SDCL) to develop a CFS (container freight station)-cum-warehousing facility at New Mangalore Port through a special purpose vehicle.
Speaking after signing the MoU in Mangaluru on Tuesday, AV Ramana, Chairman of NMPA, said the project is proposed to be developed on 16.6 acres of port land at an estimated cost of ₹125.42 crore. The contribution of NMPA will be the cost of the land offered for the project (around ₹44.25 crore). The remaining cost of the project will be equally shared by the CWC and SDCL.
He said the project is expected to be completed by June 2025.
Container handling at the dedicated container terminal, which has been developed by the port in PPP (public-private-partnership) mode, has seen a growth of 8.5 per cent in just one year since its inception while handling only full container load cargo.
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The establishment of CFS will help facilitate aggregation of less than container load cargo in addition to the further growth in full container load cargo.
He said the proposed CFS will be an enabler for small exporters and agri-product exporters by providing adequate temperature-controlled storage for aggregation and handling facilities for stuffing of container cargo. The proposed facility will reduce the container dwell time for export and import cargoes.
Road connectivity
Ramana said the port could achieve 8.5 per cent growth in container cargo handling during 2022-23 despite not having an all-weather road connectivity to the hinterland.
Work on the crucial Shiradi ghat stretch of the national highway, which connects Mangaluru with Bengaluru and other hinterland areas, is expected to be completed by February 2024. He hoped that New Mangalore Port will have an all-weather road connectivity to the hinterland next monsoon.
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NMPA handled 1.65 lakh TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent) containers during 2022-23. Ramana opined that all-weather road connectivity to the hinterland can help NMPA handle around 2.5-3 lakh TEUs of containers by 2024-25.
Amit Kumar Singh, Managing Director of CWC, and Dilip Kumar Gupta, Managing Director of SDCL, were present on the occasion.
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