Jawaharlal Nehru Port, also known as Nhava Sheva, is the largest container port in India. Located east of Mumbai in Maharashtra, the port on the Arabian Sea is accessed via Thane Creek. Its common name derives from the names of Nhava and Sheva villages that were situated here. This port is also the terminal of Western Dedicated Freight Corridor proposed by Indian Railways.
Jawaharlal Nehru Port is run by the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, an autonomous corporation wholly owned by the Government of India. The port was created to relieve pressure on Mumbai Port, then the pre-eminent port of India. It also enabled importers to avoid the octroi tax levied on goods entering Mumbai city by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation since it falls outside the jurisdiction of the municipal corporation.
The JNPT Container Terminal is operated by JNPT. It has a quay length of 680 metres (2,230 ft) with 3 berths.
The Nhava Sheva International Container Terminal (NSICT) is leased to a consortium led by P & O, now a part of DP World. Commissioned in July 2000, it has a 600 metres (2,000 ft) quay length with two berths. It can handle up to 15.6 million tons of cargo. NSICT was India’s first privately managed container terminal. In the year 2006, GTI (Gateway Terminals India Pvt Ltd), a third container terminal operated by APM Terminals, with the capacity to handle 1.3 Million TEUs was commissioned. A new standalone container terminal by the name of NSIGT having a quay length of 330 m and a capacity of 12.5 Million Tonnes will be fully operational by July, 2016. Work has commenced for commissioning of fourth container terminal with a quay length of 2,000 m. This terminal will be operated by PSA and will have a capacity of 4.8 Million TEUs (60 MTPA). Phase-I of the project with a quay length of 1 km will be commissioned by Dec., 2017.