JSW Infrastructure Ltd is set to win the rights to run its first container terminal project at a Central Government-owned port. It has quoted the highest per-container royalty to operate a facility at New Mangalore Port Trust (NMPT).
The Sajjan Jindal-led JSW Infrastructure quoted a royalty of ₹951 per twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) for a 500,000 TEU capacity terminal to be run from Berth No 14 at NMPT on a 30-year contract, multiple government sources told BusinessLine. The company confirmed it had emerged the highest bidder for the project.
JSW’s winning bid was almost double the rate quoted by Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd (APSEZ), India’s biggest private port operator. It is expected to be cleared by the board of trustees of NMPT at its next meeting, which will clear the decks for the issue of a letter of intent (LoI) to the firm.
The mechanisation of Berth No 14 on a public-private-partnership (PPP) mode at NMPT for handling containers and other clean cargo with an investment of more than ₹300 crore will be the first to utilise the revised model concession agreement (MCA) for PPP projects at major ports approved by the Cabinet in January 2018.
