CONTAINER TERMINALS AT MUMBAI
There are, at present,
two container terminals at Jawaharlal Nehru Port, Navi Mumbai.
One container terminal is managed and operated by the Jawaharlal
Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) itself and the other one is managed and
operated by a private company, namely, Nhava Sheva International
Container Terminal Private Limited (NSICT) controlled by P&O
Australia Ports Pvt. Limited on Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT)
basis under a License Agreement with the JNPT. This information
was given by Shri Dilipkumar Mansukhlal Gandhi, Minister of State
in the Ministry of Shipping in a written reply to Smt. Bimba Raikar
in Rajya Sabha today. He said that it has been decided to redevelop
the existing Bulk Terminal at Jawaharlal Nehru Port as a Container
Terminal on BOT basis and in response to the ‘Request for Qualification’
notice issued by JNPT for this project 12 parties have submitted
their applications out of which 10 parties have been short-listed
for participation in the bids.
The Minister
further stated that the existing private Container Terminal Operator
at JNP i.e. Nhava Sheva International Container Terminal Private
Limited, its parent company and any other company belonging to
its group have been excluded from the bidding process for the
above project in the interest of promoting intra-port competition
and preventing private monopoly/concentration of power in a single
private party. In reply to a question by the Member about the
efficiency and operational economy of P&O terminal at Mumbai,
the Minster said that in the absence of authentic, reliable and
verifiable common parameters which could form the basis for measurement
of comparative efficiency and operational economy, any comparison,
in absolute terms, between different terminals will not be tenable.
