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Vinayak Chatterjee: So, I have done some thinking on the subject myself and spoken to experts to figure out the viability, etc. So, what I actually feel is that the transshipment terminal at Ahmedabad from India’s own needs, needs to be done.
It needs to have a vision larger than just a container transshipment terminal for the simple reason that we are very much in the middle of a very important east-west trade route. That is point number one. Point number two is that there are geopolitical interests in this region of the world, there are superpowers with their navies, etc., playing around. And finally, it cannot remain a transshipment port forever in its life. We also have to see the development of Andamans in a rather larger perspective.
And therefore, a way to conceive this is to actually see the transshipment terminal as the sea of a bustling port city in Galathea Bay, which is in the Great Nicobar Islands, and gradually have a master plan that contains within itself everything, obviously to support a transshipment terminal. It will require a housing colony, a renewable power plant, roads, some degree of social and recreational infrastructure, and an airport. All these are required, but the vision is a little larger, to see if it can also become a busting port city with equal weightages to transshipment, commerce, as well as a certain degree of social habitation. You can have a huge number of tourist resorts, housing, and the whole area developed.
And for this purpose, I suggest a three-stage financial plan. I will keep it short. First, the port—the transshipment and allied stuff—is expected to take about Rs 20,000 crore. That is clearly unviable. You have to reduce the capital expenditure of whoever is the private sector winner. So, a 40% viability gap fund that clearly gives Rs 8,000 crore capital grant upfront. That leaves Rs 14,000 crore as the capex budget over the years for the terminal operator to spend. Secondly, the government can take on many of the activities through public expenditure which cannot earn revenue. Things like dredging … roads, stuff like that the government can do for the larger good of that area of Andamans, because we owe it to them.
Finally, there is what I would call the embedded profits over the years in development rights. The person who wins the terminal should be given an opportunity to get a return on his capital by ancillary activities, of resorts, casinos, cruise terminals, etc. So, it is a three-stage approach.
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