The government of India would soon build a major port at Colachel in the southernmost tip of Tamil Nadu at an estimated cost of $3.2 billion (Rs 21,000 crore), envisaged to emerge as a southern gateway of transshipment in the country, reports PTI.
Union Minister of State for Shipping Pon Radhakrishnan says: "The Colachel port, located at Kanyakumari district in Tamil Nadu state, is close to the international shipping route and has enough draft for establishing an international standard port with all modern facilities."
He said that the Government of Tamil Nadu has given its consent to the Centre to facilitate developing the port.
The port would be developed in three phases and it would take three years for completing the construction," he said.The minister, however, did not elaborate the roadmap as to whether the port would be built on Public Private Partnership (PPP) model and did not talk about the monetary contribution by the Union government in establishing it.
Noting that the 1.7 million metric tonnes of goods would be handled at the port, Radhakrishnan said that the new port would soon turn out as a gateway from the south for the country.According to him, mother vessels are being anchored at Colombo port and containers are being ferried to different countries thereafter.
Noting that the 1.7 million metric tonnes of goods would be handled at the port, Radhakrishnan said that the new port would soon turn out as a gateway from the south for the country.
Colachel, a fishing harbour now, is a potential port location owned by the Tamil Nadu government. So the proposed port is not yet a central government responsibility.
But that hasn’t stopped the shipping ministry from asking the V.O. Chidambaranar Port Trust, located in Tamil Nadu’s Tuticorin district and one of the 13 ports owned by the central government, to run a tender for hiring a consultant to prepare a so-called rapid techno-economic feasibility report for the new port.