Going local for global: Bharat Global Ports to test waters at home first

Govt may give consortium domestic exposure

The government is looking to give Bharat Global Ports a certain amount of domestic exposure after it set up the state-owned consortium to increase India’s global maritime heft, officials aware of the development said. The intended domestic exposure is meant to give the consortium experience and build its credentials for international projects.

 

“India Ports Global (IPGL), the operations and maintenance (O&M) arm of Bharat Global Ports, only has experience running the Chabahar Port, which is of strategic interest. To gather credentials of competence and give the manpower hands-on commercial experience, the company needs to run fully-commercial terminals,” a senior government official told Business Standard.

 

The Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways (MoPSW), which set up Bharat Global Ports, is in discussions to make the port consortium a player for domestic jetties and terminals.

 

The state-owned port operator may participate in domestic tenders for public private partnership (PPP) terminals going forward. The Centre is in talks with authorities of major ports (also state-owned) to give the nascent organisation some facilities on a nomination basis, a second official said.

 

The consortium was launched by Union Shipping Minister Sarbananda Sonowal in February, to position India as a key player in international trade and logistics. 

 

The move, officials said, was based on a tried and tested method of international maritime strategy — governments securing strategic interests through commercial, state-owned or state-backed entities, seen in Singapore and Dubai.

 

The consortium was formed by bringing together IPGL, Sagarmala Development Corporation (SDCL), and Indian Port Rail & Ropeway Corporation (IPRCL). IPRCL is a joint venture of 11 central government-owned ports and the railways public-sector undertaking Rail Vikas Nigam.

 

IPRCL will primarily work on developing infrastructure while SDCL, which is en route to become a maritime-dedicated non-banking financial company, pending Reserve Bank of India’s approval, will facilitate financing needs of the consortium.

 

Queries sent to MoPSW did not elicit a response until the time of going to press.

 

Among the projects discussed internally for Bharat Global Ports’ domestic foray is India’s second-oldest PPP port project — a container terminal at V O Chidambaranar Port Authority (VOCPA, also known as Tuticorin Port), which was recently vacated by Temasek Holdings-owned PSA International after years of arbitration and dispute with the Union government.

 

Temasek is an institutional investor owned by the Singapore government. It ran the terminal through its arm PSA Sical Terminals till last year. VOCPA re-inaugurated the terminal in February.

 

“There is an opportunity for Bharat Global Ports to operate this facility, but the deliberations on this are still nascent,” a third official said.

 

The government is exploring satellite facilities and jetties across major ports, while keeping an eye on concessions nearing expiry or government-to-government terminal opportunities.

 

While the consortium has been built to focus on development opportunities along the 7,200-kilometre International North-South Transport Corridor, it is scouting for opportunities across the globe, especially in Africa. One of the officials said that it is deliberating on port projects in Tanzania and other countries in the region.

 

Indian conglomerate Adani group is already present in Africa after it acquired a container terminal at Tanzania’s Dar es Salaam Port in May 2024.

 

The future of operations at IPGL-run Chabahar Port have grown uncertain after US President Donald Trump issued an executive order instructing the Secretary of State to “modify or rescind sanctions waivers, particularly those that provide any degree of economic or financial relief, including those related to Iran’s Chabahar port project.”

 

Even as IPGL monitors the situation, it has taken up a ₹4,000 crore capacity expenditure project to quintuple the Shahid Behesti Terminal’s capacity to 500,000 containers a year, with further expansion plans underway.

 

The company also runs the Sittwe Port in unrest-hit Myanmar, which is also of strategic interest to the Centre, and not a purely commercial endeavour. 

Going Local for Global

The government wants Bharat Global Ports to run commercial terminals in India before venturing into global projects

  India Ports Global has only operated Chabahar Port, which is of strategic importance but lacks a commercial focus

  Port operator may bid for PPP projects, while the govt also considers giving it facilities on a nomination basis

  Move follows a global pattern where state-backed firms play a key role in securing trade, as seen in Singapore and Dubai