THE HINDU NEWS PAPER ARTICLE REGARDING DIGHI PORT DEVELOPMENT hktdc Mumbai, Aug 18: Dighi Port has said additional investment of Rs 1,000 crore is in the pipeline to add more capacity to its upcoming green field port in Raigad district of Maharashtra, which is progressing as per schedule. The port, which already has two of the five berths commissioned, will go ahead with the remaining three as part of the phase one of the project, Dighi Port Chairman and Managing Director Vijay Kalantri has said. The total investment for the phase one of the port is Rs 2,500 crore, he said, adding that remaining berths will be added by December 2014. The company has already invested Rs 1,500 crore for the project. A section of media had last week reported that the Maharashtra government, which technically owns the port, has decided to “scale down” the port project located in Raigad district. Kalantri hinted that it is not the port but the adjoining Dighi Industrial Area Township, being developed by the government as a part of the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor and the National Investment and Manufacturing Zone, which is being scaled down. He said that remaining three berths of the port, being built on the banks of the Rajapuri creek, will be operational by December 2014 and the total capacity will go up to 30 million tonnes from the present 10 million tonnes. Dighi Port, which has signed a 50-year concession agreement with Maharashtra to build and operate the port, has already handled 3.5 MT cargo consisting of coal, bauxite and steel coils, the CMD said. The port, among the handful of private sector ones along the 750-km coastline in the state, had signed the concession agreement in 2002 and will have a depth of 12.5 metres as part of the phase one. The draft will be increased to 16 metres by the end of the phase II and to 20 metres by end of the phase III, Kalantri said without offering any timeline for the same. Dighi Port is being developed under a 50 year “Build, Own, Operate, Share & Transfer (BOOST)” Concession Agreement signed with Maharashtra Maritime Board (MMB). (This article was published on August 18, 2013) Keywords: Dighi Port, investment,
Posted on: Thu, 03 Oct 2013 05:29:00 +0000