Dighi Port signs MoU with Jan De Nul of Belgium

Dighi Port Ltd (DPL), a Balaji Infra Projects venture, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Jan De Nul NV of Belgium for developing the port. The Vijay Kalantri group firm will own, operate, manage, finance and market the port.

DPL has signed a 50-year concession agreement with the Maharashtra government to develop the port on a build-own-operate-service-transfer (BOOST) basis.

Balaji Infra Projects will develop Dighi as an all-weather, deep-draft port with berthing facilities on the northern and southern shores of the Rajapuri creek in Raigad district of Maharashtra.

The port is ideally located on the southwestern shores of the Rajpuri creek in Raigad district, at a distance of 175km by road and 45 nautical miles from Mumbai, the state capital and the country's commercial capital.

Apart from multipurpose, multi-commodity cargo berths, Dighi port will provide state-of-the-art cargo handling equipment for faster and efficient loading and unloading operations. The port will also have warehousing facility and stockyard connectivity and all other supportive infrastructure like pilotage and navigation facilities to ensure faster turnaround of ships.

Dighi port is setting up a port-based multi-product special economic zone, including a free trade warehousing zone, for which it has received in-principle approval from the board of approval. The commerce and industry ministry has already accorded approval to the project and the SEZ / FTWZ proposal has received good response from reputed Indian and international industrial houses.

Dighi is ideally situated in an area where there is a strong demand for port-based manufacturing and warehousing facilities. It also offers logistics support to enable substantial savings in transaction costs and time.

The port, which falls in the domestic tariff area (DTA), is also in the immediate vicinity of Mumbai and JN ports. The port developers expect a minimum period for mobilising cargo for Dighi port.

The port will have connectivity to two state highways on both shores leading to National Highway No 17. These are currently being widened and strengthened to cope with the additional traffic that the port is expected to generate.

Dighi port has received approval from the ministry of railways for setting up a railway siding and connectivity to Konkan railway. The rail corridor would traverse a length of 42km from Indapur / Mangaon on the Konkan Railway to the Dighi port siding at Agar Danda. The Konkan Railway connectivity will ensure accessibility to the port from anywhere in the country.

A special purpose vehicle (SPV) is being created to undertake the rail corridor. The project will have equity participation from Dighi port developers, the Railways (through Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd), and ILFS while Konkan Railway will undertake development and operations.

The port, which will have a draft of 12.5 metres post dredging, would handle bulk, break and container cargo and will be developed in a phased manner.

Dighi port will develop five berths for bulk/break bulk / container cargo, dedicated berths for handling coal and a dedicated jetty for handling large capacity liquid / gas cargo.

Deepening of the draft would be taken up in two seasons and made operational in a 24-month time span starting January 2007.

The Jan De Nul group, operating worldwide, specialises in dredging and land reclamation, rock piercing, trenching, rock dumping for oil and gas related offshore pipeline projects, quay walls, marine related projects, civil engineering and large-scale environmental remedy projects. The company specialises in turnkey projects.

Jan De Nul has undertaken some major projects like reclamation work on the first seven islands of Dubai Waterfront Project; the ongoing 1,400 ha land reclamation project for housing and residential purposes at Pulau Ubin and Pulau Tekong in Singapore; Palm Island II project in Dubai; deepening and maintenance dredging of the Rio Parna and Rio de la Plata River in Argentina; deepening of the port basin of Jabel Ali container terminal in Dubai and; construction of the Brussels North Water Treatment Station in the framework of an EPC turnkey project.