Gujarat Pipavav Port Limited (GPPL) announced they will invest an additional INR 260 crore (approximately EUR 40 million) immediately, to dredge to 14.5 metres draft and further improve accessibility to the port, located in the State of Gujarat, 153 nautical miles northwest of Mumbai.
GPPL has entered into a contract with Zinkcon Marine (Singapore) Pte Ltd, a subsidiary of Royal Boskalis Westminster to undertake capital dredging to increase the acceptance draught from 12.5m to 14.5m. The dredging is scheduled to be completed by mid- 2009.
Speaking about the port’s continued development, Mr Littlejohn said, “We are strongly committed to investment and growth in the port. We have presently undertaken construction of an additional container yard to support a container cargo volume of 600,000 TEUs (20ft container equivalent) per year, expected to be completed by December 31, 2008. We intend to construct container yards for supporting container cargo volume of additional 670,000 TEUs by December 31, 2009.
Port Pipavav is not just the obvious port for Gujarat, but also a preferred gateway to New Delhi and other markets in north-western India, that allows shippers an alternative to the traditional routing via the congested infrastructure around Mumbai.
“With the deeper draft, Pipavav offers a safe port for the ever larger container vessels that cannot call at Major Ports in India. The port has road and rail connectivity, and the rail freight costs from our on-dock facility to the North Indian Inland Container Depots (ICDs) are lower and the current maximum capacity of the rail link is 22 trains per day in each direction” Mr Littlejohn continued.
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