Nhava Sheva Free Port Terminal Pvt Ltd, an equal joint venture between J M Baxi Ports & Logistics Ltd and CMA Terminals Holding, has achieved financial closure on the back of a $131 million loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to upgrade and run the container terminal previously run by State-owned Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority (JNPA) located near Mumbai.
Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Nhava Sheva Freeport Terminal has signed a $131 million loan to upgrade the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Container Terminal (JNPCT) to enhance international trade in India through efficient, transparent, and state-of-the-art logistics infrastructure, the lender said.
The financing package comprises $61.4 million from ADB’s ordinary capital resources and $69.6 million from Leading Asia’s Private Infrastructure Fund (LEAP) administered by ADB.
The funds will be used to upgrade existing berths and yards and install additional energy efficient equipment such as electric quay cranes. These upgrades will expand the terminal’s container handling capacity and attract vessels operating on important international shipping lanes.
CMA Terminals is a wholly owned unit of CMA Terminals Holding, a subsidiary of the CMA CGM Group, a global player in sea, land, air, and logistics solutions.
“Global trade and supply chains are vulnerable to shocks and enhancing countries’ capacity for trade is critical to the region’s recovery from COVID-19 and its ongoing prosperity,” said ADB Vice-President for Private Sector Operations and Public–Private Partnerships Ashok Lavasa. “Long-term financial support from ADB can boost economic competitiveness in India by developing world-class mega ports and boosting the efficiency of containerized cargo terminal operations,” he added.
“Nhava Sheva Freeport Terminal is a key terminal for the country and this deal underscores India’s potential in becoming a $10 trillion economy by 2035,” said NSFTPL Board member and JMBPL Managing Director Dhruv Kotak.
JMBPL is a part of J M Baxi Group, a 106-year-old marine services, ports, logistics and technology conglomerate offering the entire range of logistics services including port facilities such as container and multi-cargo port terminals, container freight stations and inland container depots, niche logistics services for project and bulk cargo, offshore installations, and ship agency services.
LEAP is an ADB-managed fund capitalized with a $1.5 billion commitment by the Japan International Cooperation Agency.
Nhava Sheva Free Port Terminal will start operations from 10 February.
The J M Baxi Ports & Logistics- CMA Terminals Holding consortium won the bid on a global tender by placing the highest royalty price bid of Rs4,520 per twenty-foot equivalent (TEU) for the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Container Terminal (JNPCT).
The deal involves upgrading and mechanising the terminal with a quay length of 680 metres to improve utilization, crane, and berth productivity to raise the capacity to 1.8 million TEUs from 1.5 million TEUs, with an investment of Rs 872.16 crores.
Nhava Sheva Free Port Terminal will be revamping the existing container terminal previously run by the port authority in two phases and is expected to be fully completed by the fourth quarter of 2024, it said in a trade notice.
Initially, the Nhava Sheva Free Port Terminal will be operating one berth of 340 metres with 5 quay cranes for handling container ships and will be subsequently further strengthened. The other berth area will be widened to increase the rail span from the existing 20 metres to 30 metres. On completion of the upgrade, the terminal will have 9 quay cranes, 27 rubber tyred gantry cranes (RTGC’s) and 3 rail mounted gantry cranes (RMGC’s) to help load and unload containers.
“This will enable the Nhava Sheva Free Port Terminal to handle large super post Panamax vessels and cater to the increasing demand for container handling in the region,” the terminal operator said.
The terminal will be equipped with the latest technology and equipment offering high productivity and facilitate faster turnaround of ships, it added.
The Nhava Sheva Free Port Terminal will be the only facility out of the five operating at Jawaharlal Nehru Port – India’s biggest State-run container gateway – to get the freedom to fix market determined rates.
