Construction of Rewas Port to commence from January 8

Mumbai, Sept 1 (UNI) The construction of the proposed all-weather direct-berthing Rewas Port, in Raigad district will commence from January next year at a total cost of Rs 5,144 crore, said Rewas Ports president K V Natarajan here.

''We will be floating international tender for dredging by early September for bidding as we have obtained required environmental clearance needed for starting the construction,'' Mr Natarajan informed yesterday.

In the first phase of the project which will be commissioned by October 2010 a sum of Rs 1,800 crore will be spent only on dredging an area of 1,000 hectares. This area had already been acquired out of a total of 5,000 hectare project for constructing country's first mega deep water port.

Giving details of the build-own-operate-share-transfer (BOOST) greenfield port project, mooted by the Maharashtra Maritime Board, Mr Natarajan said that ICICI bank will finance the whole project, where Reliance industries has a controlling stake of 51 per cent and Maharashtra government has a minority stake.

''Initially, there will be a 13-meter dredged draft that will be deepened ultimately up to 18 meters,'' Mr Natarajan added.

There will be six multipurpose berths with a total quay length of 2,000 metres. Although, all sorts of cargoes like dry bulk, break bulk and liquid will be handled at Rewas, the Company has an ambitious plan to have a dedicated container terminal.

The port, which is located strategically with natural break water and draft (depth of sea) of 20 meters as against draft of 12.5 meters of Jawaharlal Nehru Port, was set to play a very crucial role which will be a nodal point for exports from the SEZs, will be connected with both rail and corridors including a separate rail freight line between Reliance's Navi Mumbai SEZ and its Haryana SEZ.

Such connectivity will provide easier evacuation of cargo from the port which was set to have 18 berths at the end of phase II and total investment scaling up to nearly Rs 5,000 crore.

''The advantages of good road and rail connectivity, proximity to adjacent ports and the availability of adequate infrastructure for warehousing will position Rewas Port as an international hub port for container traffic,'' Mr Natarajan pointed out.

UNI