Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority (JNPA) on Tuesday (October 17) signed a memorandum of understanding worth ₹20,000 crore with global logistics operator DP World at the Global Maritime India Summit in Mumbai, for the development of the much anticipated Vadhvan port.

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The port is located in the north of Mumbai along the Arabian coast and offers proximity to Mumbai and Gujarat. JNPA's chairman Sanjay Sethi, told CNBC-TV18 that the proceeds will be used to develop the terminals at the port that will be largely driven by green hydrogen.

"Vadhvan port is JNPA's baby. It’s one of the most ambitious projects as it is a mega port. Once ready, it will be able to handle almost 24 million TEUs, making it among the top 10 in the world. (TEUs stand for twenty-foot equivalent unit, it is a measure of volume in units of twenty-foot long containers), Sethi added.

He also said in terms of building the Vadhvan port, it's challenging as they plan to build a 10.2 kilometers-long breakwater.

"It is an offshore port that goes inside the sea for about five and a half kilometres. There are many environmental concerns in that area, like, shore protection activities, making sure that the environmental-related permissions of coastal regulations zone and all other biodiversity and also about the impact of dredging on flooding, all those kinds of things are taken care of.

So it requires a lot of diligence and a lot of preparation to take up a project like this. This port will be jointly implemented by JNPA and Maharashtra Maritime Board with a shareholding of 74% and 26% respectively," he further explained.

Speaking about the recently announced India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor, Sethi explained that JNPA will be a natural corollary for operations and benefits coming out of the proposed corridor. However, he did not share a specific timeline for the corridor's commencement.

Meanwhile, the company also signed MoUs worth over ₹40,000 crore with JM Baxi and International Seaport Dredging Private Limited of Belgium to develop other terminals at the Vadhvan port.