The Union Cabinet on February 5, 2020 gave its ‘in-principle’ approval for setting up a Major Port at Vadhavan near Dahanu in Maharashtra.
Total cost of the project is likely to be Rs.65,544.54 crore.
About the Vadhavan Port
- Vadhavan port will be developed on “land lord model”. A Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) will be formed with Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) as the lead partner with equity participation equal to or more than 50% to implement the project.
- The SPV will develop the port infrastructure including reclamation, construction of breakwater, besides establishing connectivity to the hinterland. All the business activities would be undertaken under PPP mode by private developers.
About JN Port
- The position of JN Port, the biggest container port in India is 28thin the world with a traffic of 5.1 million TEUs (Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units). Even after the completion of 4th terminal at JN Port with a capacity increase upto 10 million TEUs by 2023, it will stand as the 17thlargest container port in the world. With the development of Vadhavan port, India will break into the countries with top 10 container ports in the world.
- Maharashtra has India’s largest container port at JNPT which caters to the hinterland of Maharashtra, North Karnataka, Telangana and secondary hinterland of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, NCR, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.
Why deep draft port?
- There is a need for a deep draft port that will accommodate the largest Container Ships in the world and also cater to the spill over traffic from JNPT port once its planned capacity of 10 million TEUs is fully utilized.
- JNPT and Mundra, the two largest container handling ports of the country (for mid size container ships only), have drafts of 15 M and 16 M respectively, while the world’s largest container handling modern deep draft ports require a draft of 18M-20M. The Vadhavan port has a natural draft of about 20 meters close to the shore, making it possible for it to handle bigger vessels at the port.
- Development of Vadhavan port will enable call of container vessels of 16,000-25,000 TEUs capacity, giving advantages of economies of scale & reducing logistics cost.
Differences between Service Port Model and Land Lord Port Model
- In the service port model, the port trust owns the land and all available assets. The trust also performs all regulatory and port functions. In this model the port trust is both the landlord and the cargo terminal operator.
- In Land Lord Port model, the port authority acts as a regulatory body and as landlord while private companies carry out port operations—mainly cargo-handling activities.
- The port authority maintains ownership of the port while the infrastructure is leased to private firms that provide and maintain their own superstructure and install own equipment to handle cargo.
