The outer harbour project at Chennai Port would cost around ₹8,000 crore, said Sunil Paliwal, Chairperson of the Chennai Port Authority (ChPA).
“A techno feasibility study will be undertaken for the project. The authority is looking at constructing a 2 km long berth for containers and reclaiming the area of almost 200 acres behind that. ‘So we are constantly trying to improve our services,” he said on Thursday.
On the multi-modal logistics park (MMLP) at Mappedu, Paliwal said, “by April mid- 2026, the first phase of the country’s first green field MMLP will be ready.”
The ChPA is reviving the outer harbour project for the third time, following its initial proposal 18 years ago. In 2007, a proposal was floated to “Develop a Mega Container Terminal at North of Bharathi Dock”, having a 2 km quay length with 4 million Twenty Foot Equivalent Unit capacity, in the PPP mode on DBFOT basis, to handle larger container vessels. Tenders were invited, but due to recessionary conditions, the response was poor, and the revenue share offered was low. The tender was cancelled.
The project was restructured in 2013 as “Development of Outer Harbour Project at Chennai Port” for handling multipurpose cargo (clean cargo only), at an estimated cost of ₹5,100 crore. Bids were invited in 2014, but no response was received from potential bidders. Hence, the proposal was dropped.