India’s first major port -- Kandla -- is planning to increase its cargo handling capacity by 40 per cent to 390 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) by 2030 as it looks to spruce up its port infrastructure by inviting private players to operate their cargo and oil jetties through the PPP or Public Private Partnership mode.

“We are planning to open up our existing berths by offering them to private partners. These berths also include those being operated by us,” Sushil Kumar Singh, chairman of Deendayal Port Authority (known as Kandla Port Trust till 2017), told businessline. The port is looking to offer three oil jetties and a couple of cargo jetties to private players to help spruce up the port infrastructure.

“We have already awarded the Tuna Tekra container terminal to DP World which is a 2.19 TEU facility. This facility is already under construction and will be coming up by March 2027. Alongside this facility is a multipurpose cargo berth with 18.3 MTPA at Tuna Tekra opened up for PPP. There were some issues with the restructuring of the project and there was a demand to make it more economically viable. That restructuring has been done and we are going in for tendering of this facility which is a ₹1200-1300 crore project,” Singh added.

Going forward, Kandla plans to open up three new jetties for private players. “We are going to open up oil jetties 9, 10 and 11. These will be three new oil jetties which will be coming up near oil jetty number 8. They will add around 12 MTPA of capacity to the existing liquid cargo capacity,” the chairman said.

In addition to the oil jetties, DPA is also examining if three more cargo jetties could be offered to private players. “Then we have cargo jetties 14, 15 and 16. We are reviewing if these jetties can also be opened up for PPP. We are studying and examining the model. We will be adding around 125 MTPA of capacity by 2030 to the existing capacity of 263 MTPA. So by 2030 we expect the port capacity to be 390 MTPA,” Singh remarked.

PPP-mode is not new for Kandla. In March 2023, the project to develop Berth number 13 at Kandla at a cost of ₹168 crore was bagged by Adani group under the PPP model, while Berth number 11 and 12 are already being operated by JN Baxi.

Deendayal Port Authority currently operates 24 jetties. Of these 16 are cargo jetties that handle dry bulk and break-bulk cargo and the other 8 are oil jetties. DPA also has a bulk terminal at Tuna Tekra --- which is being managed by Adani Group --- and the Vadinar facility that handles crude and POL products. Businessline has already reported that the Kandla port is already working on a long-term strategy to develop a ₹27000 crore multipurpose cargo and container terminal between Tuna Tekra and Kandla. 

In order to improve the day-to-day performance of the port, DPA has also held meetings with shipping lines and other stakeholders to iron out the “procedural bottlenecks” to improve the evacuation of cargo and access to the port. “This has already helped in improving throughput of the port by almost 10 percent compared to last year. This has helped improve the trajectory of cargo volumes during the last two months significantly,” Singh added.

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