Tenders for developing the first phase of the Rs 44,000 crore Galathea bay project are planned for early next year, Shipping Minister Sarbananda Sonowal said in a statement Thursday.
According to the Shipping Ministry, environmental clearance for the project came in November last year. Stage 1 forest clearance has been received and in-principle approval for Detailed Project Report (DPR) of the International Container Transhipment Port (ICTP) project is under finalization.
The proposed facility is envisaged to be developed in four phases with Phase 1 is proposed to be commissioned in 2028 with handling capacity of around 50 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) or 4 Million Twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU).
The planned International Container Transhipment Port (ICTP), at Galathea Bay is part of the holistic development of Great Nicobar Island. It is significant since nearly 75% of India’s transshipped cargo is handled at ports outside the country. Colombo, Singapore and Klang handle more than 85% of this cargo with 45% of it handled at Colombo Port alone.
India is banking on the strategic location of Galathea Bay for export import trade as it lies on International shipping routes.
The estimated cost for Phase 1 of the proposed transshipment port is around Rs 19,000 crores, which includes the construction of breakwaters, dredging, reclamation, berths, storage areas, building and utilities, procurement and installation of equipment, and development of port colony with core infrastructure is going to be developed with the government support, the statement said.
At its ultimate stage of development, the project’s capacity will rise to 16 Million TEUs by 2058.
India presently has 7 ports with capacity of more than 100 MTPA each. Mega Ports at Vadhavan-JNPT Cluster, Paradip Port, and Deendayal Port have been identified to be developed for collectively handling more than 300 MTPA.