Work under way on second port at Johor
Construction work has started on the new Port of Tanjung Pelepas (PTP) in Malaysia to complement Johor Port, which is expected to reach capacity by 2000.
Mohamed Taufik Abdullah, executive chairman of Johor Port and director of PTP, said the first phase of the port's development, near the second causeway crossing to Singapore, would comprise 2,160 metres of container berths.
Mr Mohamed said the total cost of the first phase would be about M$2.8 billion (about HK$5.46 billion), excluding federal government expenditure on access roads and rail connection.
The company had secured project financing of $2 billion from a consortium of banks.
He said the first two berths would be operational by December next year, and the terminal would be backed by a 1.2 million-square-foot container yard with an annual capacity of 3.7 million teu (20 ft equivalent units).
PTP would be equipped with 24 post-Panamax gantry cranes, 79 rubber-tyred gantries - each capable of stacking seven containers high - 110 tractors and 286 trailers.
Other back-up handling equipment would include stackers for handling empty containers and two rail-mounted cranes.
Attention would be paid to the automation of the container terminal and its IT requirements to enable paperless transactions using electronic data interchange.
Mr Mohamed said site preparation had been completed and dredging work for the approach channel to a depth of 15 metres was progressing well. So far, six kilometres had been dredged to nine metres deep.
The wharf construction contract had been awarded and work was under way.
Mr Mohamed said the company was now in the process of procuring equipment and would notify successful bidders soon.
A request for the port's IT package had been issued and was being evaluated.
The Malaysian Government had granted PTP the right to develop and manage a free zone to carry out industrial and commercial activities to boost the port's development.
The zone, measuring about 783 hectares, was available for tenancy to interested investors, Mr Mohamed said, adding the government had granted another 2,025 hectares for port-related developments.
He said that by 2000, Southeast Asia would be served by a good network of modern port facilities driven by private-sector investment.
With the present trend in port development, shipping operators would have wider port-of-call options in the next decade.
Mr Mohamed, who acknowledged that Singapore would continue to be an important load centre for the region, said that other regional ports were expected to develop equally modern facilities to earn a fair share of the fast-growing container market.
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