Dutch Minister for infrastructure and water management, Cora van Nieuwenhuizen, revealed the Port of Amsterdam was interested in bidding for the new Rs300-crore cruise ship terminal in the financial capital.
According to Nieuwenhuizen, "there are no concrete investment tie-ups being evinced at present, apart from the know-how sharing and the initiatives of the Amsterdam port."
Image: Port of Amsterdam
Port of Amsterdam tied up for the project with local company J M Baxi and Co and is bidding jointly with it.
Tenders for the new cruise terminal project, through which India is due to make inroads into global cruise market, are due to be floated in a month’s time. The winning bidder would invest Rs100 crore in the project.
Under the contract, the port will be constructing the overall structure of the new terminal and expects the winning bidder to create the interiors and other facilities.
Nitin Gadkari, Union Shipping Minister, had laid the foundation stone for the new terminal in January 2018, promising to finish the 4.5 lakh ft2 facility by June 2019.
The new terminal will replace the current 40,000 ft2 facility which operated 57,000 cruise passengers through 55 visits made by cruise ships last season, and will handle 700,000 passengers.
According to Union Minister of State for Shipping Mansukh L.Mandaviya, The Netherlands could help India on the inland waterways front and in dredging.
He said that the Dutch companies popular for their dredging expertise could use the country as manufacturing and assembling base for dredgers.
Mandaviya added the government was aiming to build 6 new major ports as part of Sagarmala programme.