India awarded 20 projects worth Rs. 6000 cr; 100 mn MMT of port capacity in 9-mth

MUMBAI: India awarded 20 projects worth Rs. 6000 crore, creating100 million metric tonnes (MMT) of port capacity in the first 9 months of this financial year, Vishwapati Trivedi, Secretary, Ministry of Shipping said at an industry conference in Mumbai.

"We have already awarded 20 projects which have a capacity of a little over 100 MMT as against the target 30 projects which will boost the capacity by 250 MMT," he said.

Another 150 million metric tonnes of capacity will be created in the next 3 months of this financial year. Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust's ( JNPT) upcoming fourth container terminal will contribute 64 million metric tonnes to this, he added.

This much delayed container terminal is expected to be awarded in the next one month, Trivedi said. The secretary also said the cash-strapped Dredging Corp of India will borrow Rs. 1000 crore from cash surplus ports such as JNPT in Mumbai, Kandla in Gujarat and Paradip in Odisha. The company's second quarter net profit fell 21.6% to Rs. 9.89 crore.