The diversified Adani Group has zeroed in on Andhra Pradesh to set up a deep-water port with a proposed investment of $1 billion, as part of its plans to touch a cargo handling capacity of 200 million tonnes (mt) by 2015.
The Group currently operates three ports at Mundra, Dahej and Hazira, besides the one in Mormugao, with a total handling capacity of 160 mt.
Signed pact
The Group signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Andhra Pradesh Government during the just concluded three-day CII Partnership Summit 2012. It is yet to finalise a location for the port, but is targeting wrapping up the project within three years from the date of award.
In other states
Apart from Andhra Pradesh, Adani is also looking at setting up similar port projects in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Odisha.
In Odisha, the company is in the advanced stages of negotiation to set up a port in Paradip, at an estimated cost of Rs 30,000 crore.
Navayuga Group plans
Port projects were in focus during the summit, with the Navayuga Group, which operates a port in Krishnapatnam, proposing to set up another multi-purpose port at Machilipatnam in Krishna district to handle containers, bulk and general cargo.
The company has proposed to set up a 30-mt facility in the first phase at a cost of Rs 5,575 crore.
“The construction is expected to commence in 2012 and would be completed by 2015,” a senior official of the company said.
Krishnapatnam port expansion
Besides, it is also expanding its existing port in Krishnapatnam by adding a container terminal with a capacity of 3.3 million TEUs.
The facility will have a dry dock and fitting-out berths for super capesize vessels.
For Krishnapatnam port, coal and iron ore are its major cargoes — it has five multi-purpose berths with a draft of about 15 m. The port is expected to see a greater rush of coal traffic, with a total of 14,000 MW of power projects coming up with a 10 km radius — these include Reliance's 4,000 MW unit and AP Genco's 1,600 MW plant. These projects alone will require over 60 mt of coal a year.
NSL, Essar groups
Another proposal has been received by the State Government from the NSL Group and the Essar Group to set up a Rs 3,000-crore green field port at Kallingapatnam.
The summit saw GAIL sign a MoU with the State Government to set up a Rs 5,000-crore Regas-LNG terminal on the east coast, in view of the declining natural gas production from the KG Basin blocks.