The Salt Department of the Government of India handed over 647.8 acres land in Ennore to Kamarajar Port Ltd (KPL) to create port-based facilities.

At a function to mark the transfer, Union Minister for Shipping GK Vasan handed over a cheque for ₹484 crore to EM Sudarsan Natchiappan, Minister of State for Commerce and Industry for the land.

Natchiappan said Kamarajar Port, formerly named Ennore Port, to the north of Chennai, had suggested the allotment of land in 2002. But there had been no progress till six months ago. However, he along with Vasan took the initiative to transfer the land.

MA Bhaskarachar, Chairman and Managing Director, KPL, said a major chunk of the land will be put to commercial use for creating yard space to park cars for export and for free trade zones.

KPL had earlier planned to raise funds through bonds to fund the land purchase. However, it decided to fund it through internal accruals, said a company official. “Our entire corpus is eroded for this. We need to start building from now,” he said.

New projects include a 5 million tonne per annum (mtpa) LNG terminal to be put up Indian Oil Corporation, 16 mtpa container terminal by the Adani group, 2 MTPA multi-cargo terminal by Chettinad Builders and SICL, 9 MTPA additional coal berth no 3 for TANGEDCO. With the development of these projects, the annual capacity will more than double to 67 million tonnes by the end of the 12{+t}{+h} Five Year Plan, said Vasan.

KPL signed a memorandum of understanding with IOC for the LNG terminal, and a concession agreement with Adani Ennore Container Terminal for the container terminal.

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