New Delhi, Sep 10 (IANS): The government Wednesday approved development of an additional liquid bulk terminal at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) with an estimated total cost of Rs.2,496 crore.

According to the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), the award of the contract would be made on the highest `royalty` payment basis.

"The project will be taken up for implementation under the private public partnership (PPP) mode on design, build, finance, operate and transfer (DBFOT) basis," the CCEA said in a statement.

"Therefore, the entire investment on the project will be made by the concessionaire. The project is envisaged to be implemented in two phases with overall capacity of 26.6 million tonnes per annum (MTPA)."

The phase I envisages construction of four berths to accommodate vessels size up to 180,000 dead weight tonnage (DWT) with a capacity of 15 MTPA, and the second phase envisages construction of two additional berths for 180,000 DWT vessels with a capacity of 11.6 MTPA.