Indian port to seek partner for new iron ore handling facility

India’s Vishakhapatnam Port Trust (VPT) will seek a partner to invest US$155 million to build a new iron ore handling facility and upgrade the existing one under the public-private-partnership (PPP) model, an official from India’s Ministry of Steel said.

VPT ,which operates a port along the Bay of Bengal coastline at Vishakhapatnam in  the  eastern Indian province of Andhra Pradesh,  will award the contract on design, build, finance, operate and transfer basis, the official said.

The construction and upgrading of iron ore handling facilities at the port will be carried out in two phases. In the first phase the capacity increase will be 16.2 million mt per year, while in the second phase capacity of 6.6 million mt will be added, the official said.

VPT currently handles an average of 19 million mt of iron ore and pellets annually.