Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone, JSW Infrastructure, Essar Ports, Jindal Steel and Power, and Navayuga Engineering Company have filed the initial bids to build 25-million tonne, deep draft dry bulk cargo terminal at the Centre-owned Paradip Port at an investment of Rs 2,392.13 crore.

The private operator winning the deal will develop, operate and maintain the terminal for 30 years. The task of deepening the Western Dock basin and the navigation channel up to the berths, including the turning circle for the handling of Capesize vessels, will vest with the terminal operator.

The terminal will be built in two phases of 12.5 million tonne capacity each. The construction period for Phase-1 will be 36 months from the date of the award of the concession. The construction work for Phase-2 will begin from the date Phase-1 starts commercial operation and has to be completed within 24 months.

The private operator will have to handle a minimum guaranteed cargo (MGC) of 8.75 million tonne and 17.5 million tonne for Phase-1 and Phase-2 of the project, respectively.

It will have to pay the contractually mandated royalty amount for the MGC along with damages if it fails to achieve the MGC in a year.

Paradip Port has four private terminals — 10 million tonne coal import terminal; 10 million tonne iron ore export terminal; five million tonne multi-purpose berth to handle clean cargo including containers, and 30 million tonne mechanised facility. In FY21, the port handled 114.549 million tonne of cargo.

The planned terminal will cater to the requirement of coal and limestone imports besides the export of granulated slag and finished steel products for steel plants operating in the hinterland of Paradip Port.

The demand for import of coking coal and fluxes and export of finished steel products has been rising from the steel mills, necessitating capacity creation.