A much-awaited dream project of Kandla Port - a container terminal -- is going to be fructified in 2006. The Central government has given approval for the container terminal, and ABG Heavy Industries, Mumbai, emerged as the successful bidder by quoting the highest revenue share of 49.996 per cent.
A. J. Rao, Chairman, said, "Kandla has approved the proposal of awarding the letter of intent and in a procedure of entering into a license agreement for a period of 30 years." ABG Heavy Industries is in process to form SPV for which they have applied for the registration of a new company. He added, "An estimated cost of Rs 200 crore would be incurred towards construction of the terminal, which would be shared in 1:3 ratio between the port and private operator."
Since the port is in proximity as far as north India is concerned and traffic projection of container at Kandla is expected to grow up to 4 to 5 lakh TEUs, the container terminal is need of the hour. After commissioning the terminal, Kandla will become a major container handling port. At present Kandla handles 150,000 TEUs.