JNPT to become world-class port in 7 years

Mumbai, Oct 15: The Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) is fast on it's way to become the first world-class port in the country by the year 2013-14.

Speaking to UNI on the sidelines of the port and shipping summit, the chairperson of JNPT, Ms Rani Jadhav, said, ''The port has already carved a niche for itself by handling 60 per cent of country's total container traffic''.

However, the port is all set to achieve the status of world- class port soon, and wen have prepared a seven-year business plan for the development of the port in this connection, she revealed.

One such world-class port is already there in neighbouring China which handles 80 million tonne of cargo per annum, she added.

Talking about the ongoing development process of the port, Ms Jadhav, said that we are planning to enhance the capacity of the third terminal from the current level of 1.2 milion TEU to 2.5 million TEU by 2013-14. At present, all the terminals at the port are having the capacity to handle 3.6 MTEU. A trial run for the upgradation of the third terminal was already on.

It is part of the JNPT's plan to achieve the status of 68 million tonne as far as handling of traffic was concerned, she explained, yesterday.

Ms Jadhav pointed out that they have also invited the EoU (Expression of Understanding) for the development of the fourth terminal in the port so that it could handle 2.4 MTEU in the future.

UNI