To cut costs, MbPT to rework marina project.

To make its plan of opening up some of its land to the public - by way of a marina - attractive for bidders, the Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT) is reworking the project to bring down cost.

MbPT chairman Rajeev Gupta said, 'We are holding pre-bid meetings. We had a meeting in which we received inputs from prospective bidders. We have got feedback that initially, there was a lot of onus on the bidder.'

The plan is to lease out land at Frere Basin and Carke Basin at Mazgaon on a waterfront area of 45,000 sq m and a land area of 9,900 sq m for creating and operating a harbour for luxury boats, yachts and catamarans. The lease period would be 30 years, officials said.

The floating portion of the marina will have adequate berthing facilities and a main walkway to accommodate vessels. The developed area on-shore will have a reception, lounge, vehicular parking space, restrooms and wireless internet access besides dry storage, fuel tank, shore fueling, a boat launch facility and sheltered boat storage.

In October last year, MbPT had floated a tender to lease out land for a marina that would also be developed as a tourist destination.

The Port Trust had earlier estimated the cost of development of facilities for the marina would be around Rs. 50 crore for providing offshore and on-shore infrastructure and a tentative minimum upfront payment for the lease of the waterfront area at Rs. 46.5 a sq m a month and for land Rs. 93 per sq m a month. The MbPT had pegged the total project cost, including the minimum upfront fee, at nearly Rs. 60 crore.


THE INDIAN EXPRESS