With the objective of improving connectivity within Maharashtra, which in turn could boost the state’s gross domestic product, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Monday set two port projects on the fast track.

Fadnavis laid the foundation stone for Karanja port, entailing an investment of Rs 1,000 crore, and gave nod for signing of the memorandum of understanding for the Jaighad Port Rail Connectivity.

“The Maharashtra government plans to keep a proactive approach and fast-track projects within the state in order to successfully implement the Make in India vision of the Prime Minister,” said Fadnavis said at a press conference on Monday.

“The need of the hour is that we provide the necessary framework to speed-up projects in the state, and we are going to do that,” he said. As part of the Karanja port project, a multipurpose terminal facility is being set up along 1,000 meter waterfront over 200 acres of inter-tidal zone, under concession agreement with the Maharashtra Maritime Board, said the Karanja Terminal & Logistics in a release. Mumbai-based Karanja Terminal & Logistics has investors from the US and UK, and Nikhil Gandhi of SKIL Infrastructure Group as the chairman. The facility will serve as a complement to the Mumbai and Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust and will contribute towards easing the cargo traffic congestion in the area, apart from promoting industrial development in the region. Partial operations at Karanja project will commence within 12 months and the total construction is scheduled for completion within two years.

Located in the Raigad district, the scope of work for the project includes specialised defence logistics, critical oil and gas logistics support, along with container and general cargo jetties, among other associated facilities. For the Rs 775-crore Jaighad port project, a special pupose vehical is being formed between Konkan Railway Corp, Maharashtra Maritime Board and JSW Jaigad Port to lay a 33.7 km rail line to connect the port to the railway network.

The project will be funded in the debt:equity ratio of 70:30. Of the 30 per cent equity investment, 63 per cent will be chipped in by JSW Jaigad Port, 26 per cent by Konkan Railway and upto 11 per cent by the Maritime Board.

Sanctioned by the Ministry of Railways, the traffic and bankability study has already been carried out for this project. The project has a 30-month timeline with a revenue projection of Rs 114 crore for the first year. The traffic study for this project has been carried out by PricewaterhouseCooper.

Of the total 33.7-km rail line, about 44 hectares will be laid over agricultural land, while 106 hectares over non-agricultural and the balance under garden and general, the official from Konkan Railways said, while making a presentation to Fadnavis.

Konkan Railway Corp also highlighted the poor hinterland connectivity of railways as one of the reasons for low port capacity in the state despite a very large coastline, even longer than Gujarat which has highest number of ports in the country today.

“For all projects above Rs 1,000 crore, there will be fast track special committee set up, to regularly monitor them,” Fadnavis said.

JSW Jaigarh Port is the first deep-water, all-weather, 24x7 private port in Maharashtra. Situated between Mumbai and Goa, the port is fully operational at present, with two berths having a cargo handling capacity of 15 million tonne per annum.

“We cannot run the entire capacity as the connectivity needed is not is place. So, at present, only about 8 million tonne capacity utilisation is happening,” Sajjan Jindal, the chairman of JSW Group, said on the sidelines of the event.

“However, we plan to take the capacity of this port to 50 million tonne going ahead and once the connectivity is in place, the port capacity utilisation will also go up,” he said.

Jindal suggested that if other ports in the state are also connected better, it will help improve infrastructure in the state, generate employment and also contribute significantly in taking Maharashtra's gross domestic product higher.

Maharashtra has a long coastline of 720 km and has 35 creeks making it an attractive state for investors to develop ports projects.