As per the agreement, the consortium will construct a 832 metre long container terminal with a depth of 15.5 metre for handling latest generation cellular container vessels in the next 24 months.
With the traffic projected to increase to 1.5 million TEUs (twenty foot equivalent units) by the end of this decade and the existing capacity of 885 metre long terminal found to be insufficient to handle the projected volume, ChPT has decided to take up the construction of second terminal under NMDP, said K Suresh, chairman of the Port Trust.
As per the plans, the committed throughput will increase from 1.5 lakh TEUs in the first year of operations to 5 lakh TEUs by the end of third year. The rated capacity of the new terminal is 8 lakh TEUs per annum.