To outfit and manage new liquid cargo berths at Jawaharlal Nehru Port, seven groups, including Bharat Petroleum Corporation, J. M. Baxi Ports & Logistics, JSW Infrastructure, Ganesh Benzoplast, IMC, and Aegis Logistics, have submitted preliminary bids.
The newly constructed liquid cargo berths 3 and 4 were built with internal resources, and the state-owned port management has invited bids to choose an operator to equip, run, and maintain them.
The response to the tender, according to Unmesh Wagh, Deputy Chairman of the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority, was “overwhelming,” with the biggest names in the liquid cargo industry competing for the 30-year contract.
The port authorities spent Rs92.52 crores to construct the extra berths for liquid cargo, which can hold 4.5 million tonnes (mt) of petroleum, oil, and lubricants (POL), edible oil, chemicals, molasses, and any new product or liquid bulk commodity.
The new liquid cargo berths are made to accommodate ships with a 15-metre draught that can transport up to 90,000 tonnes of liquid cargo.
The company offering the highest royalty on each tonne of cargo handled at the berths to be split with the port authority will be given the contract.
The successful operator will be free to choose charges based on the prevailing conditions of the market.
The extra berths are intended to meet the increased demand for liquid cargo while also relieving pressure on the state-owned oil refining and marketing company’s existing liquid cargo jetties 1 and 2.
The BPCL-operated liquid cargo berths now in use have a 6.5 mt handling capacity and are utilised to more than 90% of their potential. Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and chemicals, such as ammonia, are the principal cargoes handled by the BPCL jetty.
