The centre
has notified the international trans-shipment hub at Galathea Bay in the
Andaman & Nicobar Islands as a 'Major Port'.
With this, the proposed Rs 44,000 crore mega project is
officially under the administrative control of the union ports, shipping, and
waterways ministry. It is also eligible for central funding
and will be developed under the public-private partnership model.
India currently has 12 operational Major Ports controlled by the central
government and another 200 non-major ones governed by the states. Out of the
200 non-major ports, around 65 handle cargo while the others are used by
fishing vessels and by small ferries to carry passengers.
Once
operational, the Galathea Bay project will help capture a large share of
transshipped cargo which is handled at ports outside India
The proposed facility is envisaged to be developed in four phases with
Phase 1 is proposed to be commissioned in the year 2028 with handling capacity
of ~ 4 Million TEUs, increasing to 16 Million TEUs in the ultimate stage of
development by 2058.
It has also been decided to develop three Mega
Ports - Vadhavan- Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority (JNPA) Cluster, Paradip Port,
and Deendayal Port. These will be upgraded
into Mega Ports with a capacity of over 300 million tonnes per annum (MTPA
Under the Maritime Amrit Kaal Vision 2047, four port clusters
with a capacity of more than 300 MTPA and two with capacity more than 500 MTPA
will be developed.