New Delhi, Oct 21 (IANS) Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, along with Ports, Shipping & Waterways Minister Sarbanand Sonowal and Environment, Forest & Climate Change Minister Bhupender Yadav, held a meeting on Tuesday with senior officials to expedite work for completing the Vadhavan Port Project on the Maharashtra coast.

“We reviewed various aspects of the project to ensure its timely completion. The Vadhavan Port will play a key role in generating employment opportunities and expanding global maritime trade avenues,” Goyal said after the meeting.

The Union Cabinet, in June last year, approved the setting up of a Major Port at Vadhavan near Dahanu in Maharashtra with an investment of Rs 76,220 crore that includes the cost of land acquisition.

The project is being constructed by Vadhavan Port Project Limited (VPPL), an SPV formed by the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority (JNPA) and the Maharashtra Maritime Board (MMB) with a shareholding of 74 per cent and 26 per cent, respectively. The Vadhavan Port is being developed as an all-weather greenfield deep draft major port.

The total project cost includes the development of core infrastructure, terminals and other commercial infrastructure in public-private partnership (PPP) mode. The project also involves establishing road connectivity between the port and National Highways by the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways and rail linkage to the existing rail network and the upcoming Dedicated Rail Freight Corridor by the Ministry of Railways.

The port will comprise nine container terminals, each 1,000 metres long, four multipurpose berths, including the coastal berth, four liquid cargo berths, a Ro-Ro berth, and a Coast Guard berth. The project involves the reclamation of 1,448 hectares of area in the sea and the construction of 10.14 km of offshore breakwater and container/cargo storage areas. The project will create a cumulative capacity of 298 million metric tons (MMT) per annum, including around 23.2 million TEUs (Twenty-foot equivalents) of container handling capacity.

The capacities created will also aid EXIM trade flow through the IMEEC (India Middle East Europe Economic Corridor) and the INSTC (International North South Transportation Corridor). The world-class maritime terminal facilities promote public-private partnerships (PPP) and leverage efficiencies and modern technologies to create state-of-the-art terminals capable of handling mainline mega vessels plying on international shipping lines between the Far East, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the Americas. Vadhavan Port, on completion, will be one of the top ten ports of the world, the statement said.

The Project, aligned with the objectives of the PM Gati Shakti programme, will add to further economic activity and also have the potential for direct and indirect employment opportunities for around 10 lakh individuals, thereby contributing to the local economy, according to an official statement.

–IANS

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