The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Mega container terminal gets moving

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Saturday, May 31, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Mega container terminal gets moving

Special Correspondent

ChPT has envisaged a total of five container terminals by 2027

The mega terminal will handle ultra large container ships
It will be the first deep water terminal of its kind in India

CHENNAI: The Chennai Port Trust (ChPT) kick-started work on the Rs.3,105-crore mega container terminal by holding its first pre-application conference on Request For Qualification (RFQ) with prospective developers on Friday.

In all, 186 queries were raised by the participating members during the conference and site inspection on break-up cost of the project, evacuation plan, phasing of construction activities and whether they could build any other facility on the premises.

Around 25-30 parties had downloaded the RFQ forms, including Reliance Projects, ABG Projects and Infrastructure, Concor, APM Terminals, Eredene Capital, IMC Ltd, DP World, IL&FS, Gammon Infrastructure, GE Transportation and CMA-CGM.

Talking to The Hindu, ChPT chairman K. Suresh said as per the proposal, the scope of work broadly included designing, engineering, financing, constructing, operating, maintaining and marketing, providing facilities and services on Build Operate Transfer (BOT) basis for a concession period of 30 years. ChPT would carry out dredging and reclamation work.

Last year, Chennai Port handled 11.28 lakh Twenty Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs). Due to continued growth of container traffic on the east coast, the port is all set to become a major container hub. To keep pace with the growth, it has envisaged a total of five container terminals by 2027. It plans to develop facilities to cater to the latest generation of vessels and exploit sharp increase in cargo volumes, say port officials. The mega terminal will handle ultra large container ships with a capacity of over 15,000 TEUs and length of 400 metres. It would be the first deep water terminal of its kind in India.

It is proposed to develop a 2 km-long mega terminal at the new outer harbour with a 2.75 km extension of existing outer arm breakwater and also new northern breakwater of about 1.73 km emanating from the eastern breakwater of the Fishing Harbour, the officials added.

“The ChPT will respond to the bidders’ questions in the next 10 days and then proceed to short list the pre-qualifier, who would be asked to submit Request For Proposals (RFP). The last day for submitting the RFQ has been extended by a month to July 31,” Mr. Suresh said.

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