Mumbai, Feb 16 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the country's largest container terminal at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust here on Sunday, an official said on Friday.
The JNPT's Fourth Container Terminal (FCT)'s Phase I has been completed in a record time at a cost of Rs 4,719 crore and is expected to boost container trade and logistics in a big way.
In October 2015, Modi had laid the foundation stone for this terminal which will double JNPT's current container handling capacity.
The FCT will add capacity of 2.4 million (24 lakh) containers per annum in the first phase and after completion of the second phase in 2022, the capacity will be quadrupled to a whopping 100 lakh containers per year.
The FCT was developed on Design, Build, Fund, Operate and Transfer (DBFOT) basis for a concession period of 30 years with an estimated investment of Rs 7,915 crore for both the phases.
The terminal will be able to dock mother vessels, handle the biggest containers ships from a quay length of one km, handle three container ships simultaneously with sufficient yard space, and cranes which can reach 22 rows wide or more.
The FCT will be linked to the dedicated road access and a rail freight corridor and will receive around 350 containers per rake besides provision for storing 1,600 refrigerated (reefer) containers for perishables, agriculture and horticulture produce.
Accordingly, the official said the commencement of operations at FCT will offer immense opportunities for the EXIM community so that trade flourishes.
The rail facilities will be the largest in India with the only on-dock Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) compliant facility in the country, capable of handling 1.5-km long, 360 Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit (TEU) container trains on completion of the DFC.
Under the Sagarmala project, 101 projects worth Rs 2.5 lakh crore have been planned in Maharashtra of which five are already completed and another 58 are under various stages of development.
