PPPAC approves VOC Port's Rs 70.56 bn Outer Harbour Box Terminal

The V O Chidambaranar Port Authority, a port owned by the Union government and situated in the Thoothukudi district of Tamil Nadu, has obtained approval from the Public-Private-Partnership Appraisal Committee (PPPAC) to construct a container terminal with a capacity of 4 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in the port's outer harbour. The investment for this project is estimated to be Rs70.55 billion. Additionally, according to documents viewed by ET Infra, an Empowered Committee has given in-principle approval for a viability gap funding (VGF) of Rs 19.50 billion for the same project. It is noteworthy that the final approval for the VGF, as recommended by the Empowered Committee, is pending and requires the endorsement of the Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman. It is important to highlight that this will be the second port project to receive government-backed viability gap funding, following the upcoming Vizhinjam Port project. The PPPAC and Empowered Committee conducted their meetings on 8 November.