V. O. Chidambaranar Port Authority & J M Baxi’s Tuticorin International Container Terminal Pvt. Ltd ink Concession Agreement for developing the port’s Berth No. 9 as a container terminal
V. O. Chidambaranar Port Authority (VOCPA), Tuticorin and Tuticorin International Container Terminal Pvt. Ltd (TICTPL), a wholly owned subsidiary of J M Baxi Ports & Logistics Ltd (JMBPL), have inked a Concession Agreement for conversion of the port’s Berth No. 9 as a Container Terminal.
The agreement was signed on behalf of VOCPA by Mr T. K. Ramachandran, IAS, Chairman, and on behalf of Tuticorin International Container Terminal by Mr Dhruv Kotak, Managing Director, J M Baxi Ports & Logistics, in the presence of Mr Bimal Kumar Jha, Deputy Chairman, VOCPA; Mr V. Surash Babu, Chief Mechanical Engineer, VOCPA; Mr Tamal Roy, Chief Strategy Officer-JMBPL; Mr Sandeep Wadhwa, President (Corporate affairs)-JMBPL; Mr K. K. Krishnadas, President & COO-JMBPL, and other senior officers of the port and JMBPL, on Saturday, informed a release issued by VOCPA.
As per the Concession Agreement, the container handling facility will be developed by the concessionaire at an estimated cost of Rs 434.17 crore, with an estimated capacity addition of 6,00,000 TEUs per annum.
The project would be executed on DBFOT (Design, Build, Finance, Operate and Transfer) basis, with a construction period of 21 months and is slated to be completed by December 2024.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr Ramachandran pointed out that the terminal, with length of 370 metres and draught of 14.20 metres, would be able to cater to vessels up to 8,000 TEUs and thereby facilitate more investments, paving the way for the economic development of the region.
As per the PPP policy of the Government of India, VOCPA had floated a global tender for the project. J M Baxi Ports and Logistics emerged as the successful bidder with its offer of Rs 1,900.44 per TEU to the port. It has formed a Special Purpose Vehicle, namely, Tuticorin International Container Terminal Pvt. Ltd, to implement the project, the release said.
V. O. Chidambaranar Port, presently the second largest container handling port in Tamil Nadu, has a capacity of 1.17 million TEUs per annum. It had registered a throughput of 7.6 lakh TEUs in 2021-22. The Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of container traffic at the port over the last 5 years has been 6% and it is expected to handle 1.16 million TEUs by 2024-25 and 2 million TEUs by 2034-35, the release highlighted.
Source: Exim News Service: Tuticorin, Sept. 5