P&O, APM Terminals get licenses for new Indian terminals

P&O, APM Terminals get licenses for new Indian terminals    P&O Ports and APM Terminals, two of the world’s major international terminal operators, have each separately obtained licenses to operate new container terminals in India.
   London-based P&O said today it has secured the rights to become an investor in Bengal Port Ltd., a company that will develop a container and general cargo terminal in Kulpi, 45 miles downriver from Kolkata (previously known as Calcutta).
   Rotterdam-based APM Terminals, an affiliate of A.P. Moller-Maersk, said a joint venture between the company and Container Corp. of India has signed a license agreement with the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust for the conversion of a bulk terminal into a container terminal at the port, located near Mumbai.
   The P&O port project involves the construction of a container terminal and multipurpose berths. P&O will have rights to acquire 69 percent of Kulpi Port Co., to which Bengal Port Ltd. will assign a 50-year concession to develop, operate and maintain the port.
   Subject to further studies, the new port in Kulpi will initially have two berths, with a capacity of 500,000 TEUs a year and a length of 350 meters. The first berth could be operational by 2007 and the second berth after 2009.
   P&O estimates the first two berths will represent an investment of about $250 million.
   “Kolkata and its surrounding region are currently served by government-run terminals in Kolkata and the nearby port of Haldia.” P&O said. But these terminals are behind locks and the facilities are becoming constrained in terms of capacity, it added. Kulpi will not require indirect access through locks.
   The joint venture between APM Terminals, with a 74-percent share, and Container Corp. of India, with a 26-percent stake, will operate a terminal at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust to be known as Gateway Terminal India.
   The venture, also called Gateway Terminals India, will develop the bulk facility into a 1.4-million-TEU capacity container terminal. The box facility is scheduled to become operational in August 2006 and will be operated as a common user facility. APM did not disclose the amount to be invested by the joint venture in the facility.
   APM said the redevelopment work will comprise widening and strengthening the 712 meters of quay, building a new access bridge, demolishing old warehouses, converting the area into a container yard with rail siding, constructing a gate complex and administration building, and reclamation works.
   When fully operational, the container terminal will be equipped with eight ship-to-shore gantry cranes.