Ennore Port pays Rs 7.4 cr dividend

Ennore Port Ltd (EPL) on Thursday handed over a dividend cheque of Rs 7.41 crore to the Union minister of shipping G K Vasan for 2010-11. Ennore Port is the only major port which is paying dividend to the government as it is a corporate port. During the year, Ennore Port reported a post-tax profit of Rs 55.58 crore as against Rs 48.66 crore in the previous year. EPL has declared dividend of 20 per cent on post-tax profit which works out to Rs 11.11 crore (Rs 9.73 crores in 2009-10). Of this, the government gets Rs 7.41 crore and Chennai Port Trust gets Rs 3.7 crore as dividend from EPL. The dividend tax would be Rs 1.85 crore.

The total cash outflow including dividend tax is Rs 12.96 crore as against Rs 11.39 crores paid in 2009-10.

The operating ratio of Ennore Port is the lowest among all the major ports at 33.56 per cent during 2010-11. The port has received an investment of Rs 2,600 crore on various terminals and harbour crafts from private entrepreneurs.

EPL has awarded a concession to the Bay of Bengal Gateway Terminal Pvt Ltd for developing a world class container terminal which will be capable of handling three mainline vessels simultaneously. The terminal will be developed at an investment of Rs 1,407 crore. It would have a capacity of 1.5 million TEUs per annum.

The container terminal at Ennore Port is expected to be in operation by 2013-14. Pre-project activities have begun for construction of third coal berth to enable EPL to handle 26 million tonnes of coal need for TNEB by 2013-14. The estimated cost of the new coal berth will be Rs 150 crore including dredging. EPL board has already approved the project.

Rail connectivity project works to link coal and iron ore stackyards with Athipattu and Athipattu Pudu Nagar Stations on the Chennai-Vijayawada mainline are under implementation at a cost of Rs 80 crore. Meanwhile, the coal and iron ore stackyards are being serviced through a new-line operationalised in November 2010.

The phase-II capital dredging to create necessary depths to handle larger vessels is in progress at an estimated cost of Rs 170 crore. Under this project, the Ennore Port’s channel depth has already been increased to 18m CD from 16m CD.