Adani, Essar, L&T interested in developing Ennore container terminal

CCEA approval for the project likely by Jan 27, says MD

Adani Ports, Essar, Larsen & Toubro (L&T) and DP World were among the 11 companies that responded to requests for proposal (RFPs) to develop a container terminal at Ennore Port, M A Bhaskarachar, chairman and managing director of Ennore Port, said here on Tuesday.

The port was awaiting an approval by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs in this regard, and this was expected anytime after January 27, he added, while speaking on the sidelines of signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Ford India and Ennore Port. The MoU relates to Ford using the port facilities to park its cars and ship those abroad.

The proposed container terminal, with a quay length of 730 m, will have a capacity to handle 1.40 million twenty-foot equivalent units a year. The Rs 1,270-crore container terminal project will be developed on a design-build-finance-operate-and-transfer basis and will have a concession period of 30 years.

Union Shipping Minister G K Vasan said this would be one of the three important projects to be taken up by the port, which planned to increase its capacity to 66.8 million tonnes a year by end of the 12th five-year Plan. The other projects are a Rs 4,500-crore liquefied natural gas terminal by Indian Oil Corporation and a coal berth.

On the MoU with Ford, Vasan said the agreement would be for 10 years, effective January 1, 2014.

He added Ennore Port had developed a general cargo-cum-car terminal at a cost of Rs 140 crore, which included a car parking yard of 35 acres where 10,000 cars could be parked at a time, the largest car parking yard among major ports. The terminal began operations in January 2011 and catered to Nissan, Toyota, Honda, Ashok Leyland, among others. So far, the port has handled 449,720 cars. Recently, it also started handling transhipment of cars.