Four heavyweight contracting teams have submitted initial bids to build a 10.14km-long breakwater for India’s latest new megaport at Vadhvan on the west coast of Maharashtra state, some 150km north of Mumbai.

Part of India’s drive to develop its ports, Vadhvan Port represents an investment of around $7.4bn (655bn rupees), to be built and operated as a public-private partnership.

It will be built on reclaimed land – protected by the breakwater – taking advantage of the site’s natural 20m-deep draft.

It will have nine container terminals and 18 berths, giving 9km of quayside.

With an expected annual capacity of 23.5 million containers by 2035, Vadhvan Port is set to be Maharashtra’s third megaport after Mumbai and Jawaharlal Nehru Port (aka Nhava Sheva Port), which cannot expand owing to surrounding urban development.

The breakwater element is expected to cost in the region of $597m, reports ETInfra.

The four interested teams are led by Larsen & Toubro (L&T), Afcons Infrastructure, Cemindia Projects, and Hindustan Construction Projects.

According to ETInfra, L&T has teamed up for its bid with Archirodon Group NV, a global EPC contractor based in Athens and the Netherlands.

Cemindia Projects is bidding jointly with NMDC Dredging & Marine, a unit of Abu Dhabi-based NMDC Group.

Hindustan Construction has allied with Hyderabad-based Vishwa Samudra Engineering, says ETInfra, while Afcons Infrastructure, a unit of Shapoorji Pallonji Group, is bidding on its own.

Delivery company Vadhvan Prot Project Ltd has separately called for bids for the reclamation project that will eventually create 1,207 hectares of land for the port, ETInfra reports.