J M Baxi Ports and Logistics Pvt Ltd and M Dinshaw & Co Pvt Ltd have secured 15 year rights to operate cargo berths at Indira Dock of the Mumbai Port Authority under an operation and maintenance model, marking the largest asset monetisation deal finalised by the state-owned port under this approach. The contracts aim to bring private operational expertise and improve asset utilisation at the dock.

J M Baxi Ports and Logistics emerged as the highest bidder for a cluster of 10 berths with a royalty bid of Rs 153.44 per tonne (t) and is 50 per cent owned by Hapag-Lloyd AG, the world’s fifth largest container shipping line. M Dinshaw & Co secured rights for a separate cluster of 12 berths with a royalty bid of Rs 217 per t.

The 10 berth cluster comprises BPX, BPS and ID HWB berths and berths one to three of the Indira Dock basin, while the 12 berth cluster covers Jetty End and the remaining numbered berths. The port authority expects the new operators to manage loading, unloading and transport services and to bring operational efficiencies through private participation.

The initiative is being driven by M Angamuthu, the chairman of the Mumbai Port Authority, who is replicating an O&M model implemented earlier at the Visakhapatnam Port Authority and continues to hold additional charge there after taking charge at Mumbai Port in September 2025. The authority has noted difficulties in privatising terminals under the public private partnership model, citing a prior offshore container terminal project awarded in 2007 that ended unsuccessfully. Officials have said that decline in labour strength and an ageing workforce have reduced productivity and that vessels have relied heavily on custom house agents for labour deployment, prompting the port to outsource stevedoring, loading, unloading and transportation activities.