Govt to invite tenders for huge transshipment hub at Great Nicobar next month

livemint.com:

₹18,000-crore first phase of the proposed international container transshipment terminal at Great Nicobar next month. Sarbananda Sonowal, minister of shipping, ports and inland waterways, said about a dozen entities have shown interest in the project and that tenders would be floated soon after the terms were finalised. Mint had earlier reported that Larsen & Toubro Ltd, Afcons Infrastructure Ltd, and JSW Infrastructure Ltd were among companies interested in building the terminal.

The ministry of shipping, ports and inland waterways is now expected to finalise a cabinet note for the public-private-partnership project, and seek approval over the next three to four weeks before tenders are floated for the first phase. The bids are likely to be finalised in the first quarter of FY25, a shipping ministry official said, declining to be identified. India’s marquee ₹43,700-crore international container transshipment terminal in Great Nicobar has already received in-principle approval from the union finance ministry.

The project has four phases, the first of which entails an investment of ₹18,000 crore to create four million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) or 60 million tonnes of containerised cargo capacity. TEU is a standard unit of cargo capacity, often used for container ships and container ports. The project will involve the creation of berthing facilities, townships for workers and a break-water facility for ships.