On a move to increase the inflow of container traffic, Visakhapatnam port has decided to provide 11 acres of land to Container Corporation of India Limited for setting up an inland container depot (ICD) within the port area. The land will be leased to CONCOR for 30 years for an annual rent of Rs.8.5 million. Visakhapatnam port is keen on having an ICD facility, which would help the port to discount stuffing and destuffing activities including reefer cargo inside the port. With the facility, the port is confident of attracting exim cargo from ICDs located at Hyderabad, Guntur, Anaparthi and Nagpur as well as from upcoming ICDs at Raipur, Satana, Jabalpur, Kanpur and Mirzapur.
The Ministry has planned to construct an inter-state water transport terminal at Bandra, connecting Mumbai with Gujarat, Goa and Karnataka. Revas port would be developed as an alternative to Mumbai Port. The government has also decided to construct a Rs.3 billion inland water transport system on built-operate-transfer (BOT) basis, connecting Nariman Point with Borivli to reduce the pressure on road and rail traffic. The government is also planning to commence a similar service from the Gateway of India on the eastern front.
Petronet LNG has short listed five firms for equipment, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for its liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal project at Dahej in Gujarat. The contract worth $650 million is expected to be finalized by the year-end. The project will be financed on non-recourse basis with debt-equity ratio of 7:3. The short-listed companies are Chiyoda, Ihhi and Japan Construction Company (JCC), Hanjin of Korea and Technigas and Techni Mount consortium of France.
The Shipping Corporation (SCI) has left 3-way split decision as recommended by the consultants PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) to the union government to take a final decision. As the proposed three-way split of SCI was aimed at making the company suitable for different investors, focusing on the respective segments, the decision has to come from the Central government, which is planning to offload its 40% stake.
Essar Shipping has procured a second-hand capesize vessel with a capacity of 1,20,000 dwt for $4 million, the second in a span of two months.
The Ministry of Surface Transport (MoST) has proposed replacement
of corporate tax with tonnage tax for the shipping industry
in the 2001-2002 union budget. The Indian National Ship owners
Association has pointed out that existing taxation in India,
at an effective rate of 22%, is 15 times higher than the average
tax paid by shipping companies in other countries. The tonnage
tax is a lump sum amount which small shipping companies can
afford since they do not have depreciation benefits.
Meanwhile, MoST has asked shipyards to diversify to tap the
changing fortunes in the global shipping industry. MoST has
urged Hindustan Shipyard Limited (HSL) to explore the possibility
of getting into repairs of LNG carriers, which would soon
be increasingly used. HSL has welcomed MoST's move to grant
the status of infrastructure sector to the shipbuilding industry
since it would give shipyards better access to working capital
and interest holidays.
Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) has signed a Rs.25 billion agreement for laying a 12,500-km LNG pipeline and for creating a gas infrastructure in various parts of Maharashtra including Mumbai, Pune, Solapur, Nasik and Goa. GAIL has signed an agreement with the Maharastra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) and the Maharastra Petrochemicals Corporation Limited for the development of a gas pipeline network and for marketing natural gas in the State by which a joint working group would be set up to aggregate the potential gas demand and develop or expand the gas supply infrastructure in Maharastra. The total investment of the project has been estimated at $718 million.
CONCOR has declared 55% dividend for last fiscal, the highest ever paid by the company by registering an increase in the profit figures to Rs.1775 million last year from Rs.54 million in 1990-91. The company has already paid an interim dividend of Rs.81 million in January and has paid Rs.225 million to the government for 1999-2000. The company handled 9,03,151 TEUs in the year. Besides movement of containerised cargo, the company also provides value added services such as transit warehousing for import and export cargo and also planning to set up specially designed godowns for hazardous cargo.
The South Eastern Railway (SER) has registered an increase of 14% in passenger traffic during April to September by carrying 14.03 million passengers in six months. SER has earned Rs.3.72 billion from originating passenger traffic, registering an increase of about 10% over the Rs.3.39 billion achieved during the same period last year. The passenger traffic target of the SER has been fixed at 220 million last year.
The Railways and Calcutta port operations have been disturbed with the change in the logistics pattern of Indian Oil Corporation's (IOC) north-east (NE) operations - Nearly 300 thousand metric tonnes (tmt) of the finished POL products are moving out of the region per month with no inbound POL cargo leaving the railways with the problem of running inefficient round trips with empty inbound rakes. Since Numaligarh has created an additional crude processing capacity of 200 tmt per month, the oil major's import of finished products through Budge Budge is about to come to a virtual halt.
Dynamic Logistics is likely to commence LCL (less-than-container-load) cargo movement shortly from the Inland Container Depot (ICD) at Dighi for the benefit of the exim community in the region. The export import trade can substantially reduce its costs of foreign trade transaction by using the well-equipped ICD at Dighi. The entire customs clearance and benefits can be availed at Dighi and the industry can get export shipment documents relating to everything from Customs clearance to export benefits in Pune itself.
Container Freight Station in Adalaj has started the movement
of import containers by road from the ports. The CFS, which
had transported a number of export containers by road to the
various ports earlier, is presently operating at 26 CFS/ICDs
in different parts of the country and is set to complete 10
years of its existence in December this year.
Chennai Port Trust has invited offers for
Name of the work: Manning, operation and maintenance including
repairs of Police Launch ' E.L. Stracey' to be provided by the
Trust for 3 years.
Cost of tender paper: Rs.1,000
Earnest Money: Rs.3,29,000
Tenders can be collected: on 21.11.2000 up to 4.00 p.m.
Address for communication: Deputy Chief Accounts Officer (Engg),
Old Administrative Office Building, Chennai Port Trust,
Chennai- 600 001.
National Highways Authorities of India has invited offers
for
Name of the work: Widening to 4 lanes and strengthen of the existing
two-lanes carriage way of Udaipur-Ratanpur-Gandhinagar Section
of National Highway-8.
Tenders can be collected: from October 23,2000 onwards between
1000 hrs and 1700 hrs on all working days.
Address for communication: General Manager (PI-II), National Highways
Authority of India, 1, Eastern Avenue, Maharani Bagh, New Delhi-110065,
Tel: 692 9819,
Fax: 692 4383,
E-mail: aditya@nhai.org,
nhai@vsnl.com.
Gujarat State Road Development Corporation Limited has
invited offers for
Name of the work: 1) Railway Over Bridge near Savli including
strengthening and widening to four laning of portion of SH-158
from junction Vadodara bypass at km 9/150 to end of approach of
proposed ROB at km 13/050. 2) Rail Over bridge near Chhayapuri.
Tenders can be collected: on or before November 09,2000 on any
working day from 11-00 hrs to 17-00 hrs.
Address for communication: Shri J.C Shah, Managing Director, GSRDC,
Ground floor, Nirman Bhaban , Sector-10/A,
Gandhinagar- 382010, Gujarat.
Tel: 91-2712-21411/29287
Fax: 91-2712-20043.
E-mail: mail@gsrdc.com
National Highways Authorities of India has invited offers
for
Name of the work: Widening to 4 lanes and Rehabilitation of Existing
2-lane carriageway of Pune-Satara Road (NH-4), Package-1 (km 725
to 760)
Tenders can be collected: from October 23,2000 onwards between
1000 hrs and 1700 hrs on all working days.
Address for communication: Team Leader (Technical Assistance Group),
National Highways Authority of India, 3 Ring Road (Kilokri), New
Delhi-110 014.
Tel: 91-11-6913251,6924024,
Fax: 91-11-6913246
E-mail: nhai@vsnl.com