This will be the second contract win for J M Baxi Ports & Logistics at Jawaharlal Nehru Port and the third overall across major ports, in recent months.
J M Baxi Ports & Logistics placed a price bid of Rs84.4 per ton of cargo handled at the berths, to emerge the highest bidder, when the price bids were opened on Friday, multiple sources, including an official at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority, said.
Port tenders at major ports (owned by the Centre) are decided on the basis of royalty per ton – the entity willing to share the highest royalty per ton of cargo handled at the berth with the port authority wins the deal for 30 years.
The royalty payable will rise annually in tandem with the increase in wholesale price index (WPI), a measure of costs. The terminal operator will be free to set market rates under the new Major Port Authorities Act and the model concession agreement (MCA).
This is the second contract win for J M Baxi Ports & Logistics at Jawaharlal Nehru Port and the third overall across major ports, in recent months.
In June, the firm led by Dhruv Kotak won the tender issued by Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority (JNPA) to privatise the container handling terminal self-run by the State-owned port authority located near Mumbai. The concession agreement for this terminal was signed on 29 July.
In August, the port operator won the bid to convert the dry bulk cargo Berth No 9 at V O C Port Authority into a container terminal with private funds. The concession agreement for this project was signed in early September.
All the three port projects are part of the National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP), wherein operational infrastructure assets including port terminals will be privatised through the public-private-partnership (PPP) route.
The 4.5 million tonne (mt) a year capacity shallow water berth has a length of 445 metres with a depth of 10 metres, capable of handling container, cement, general cargo, and liquid cargo vessels.
The construction of the dedicated berth for coastal shipping was taken up under the ‘Sagarmala’ program of the Ministry of Ports, Shipping, and Waterways to provide a boost to coastal cargo movement.
The coastal berth has the capacity to handle about 2.5 million tonnes of coastal cargo like break bulk, dry bulk etc. The berth has a back-up area of 11 hectares to store cargo. JNPA also plans to set up silos for storage of cement which will enable faster turnaround of vessels.
The coastal berth, which was completed in November 2020, aims to provide better infrastructure for coastal shipping and decongest rail and road networks, ensuring cost-competitive and effective multi-modal transportation solutions.
The construction of the dedicated berth is in line with the government’s policy to promote coastal shipping to shift freight from road to an environment-friendly and cost-effective mode of transport.
The coastal berth will aid smooth and faster coastal movement of cargo through a green channel and help increase the share of coastal shipping in the domestic cargo movement and as well as facilitate the export-import (EXIM) community.
J M Baxi Ports & Logistics runs container terminals at Visakhapatnam port, Deendayal Port (Kandla), Haldia Dock Complex, a multiple purpose terminal at Paradip Port, container freight stations, inland container depots, bulk logistics, rail logistics (container trains), cold chain logistics and heavy project logistics.
In FY22, J M Baxi Ports & Logistics handled about 1.6 million TEUs and about 15 million tonnes (mt) of cargo, across its facilities located on India’s western and eastern coasts. The NMP has listed 31 cargo berths across nine of the 12 major ports for privatisation by 2025.
