As a part of its strategy to double its ports capacity to 158 million tonne by 2013, Ruias-led Essar Ports today said it had commissioned 12 million tonne expansion at its Vadinar terminal in Gujarat at a cost of Rs 1,065 crore.
With this, Vadinar Port's capacity goes up to 58 million tonne per annum, taking Essar's total capacity to 88 million tonne per annum.
"This additional capacity is in the form of a new jetty for handling petroleum products, storage tanks and a road gantry. With the commissioning of this additional 12 million tonne the total handling capacity of Vadinar Port has gone up to 58 million tonne," Essar Ports said in a statement.
The capacity addition is in line with the Essar Oil's refinery expansion to 18 million tonne as part of the phase 1 expansion which will be raised to 20 million tonne, scheduled to be completed by September 2012.
"The building of this additional capacity is in line with the future growth... Essar Ports has committed to take the total port capacity to 158 million tonne by 2013.
"The company expects to see revenue growth of over 35% every year for the next few years based on increased realisation and incremental traffic," the company's Managing Director Rajiv Agarwal said.
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Essar Ports, one of the largest private sector ports in the country, has lined up major expansion plans at Salaya, Paradip Haizra and Vadinar to double the capacity to 158 million tonne by 2013 at an expenditure of Rs 9,300 crore, of which the company said it has already spent more than Rs 6,300 crore.
Essar ports currently have two ports in operation and three under construction. The two ports in operation are at Hazira and Vadinar, both in Gujarat.
The cargo handling capacity at Hazira is 30 million tonne, which will be ramped to 50 million tonne while at Vadinar the capacity has been ramped up to 58 million tonne.
Apart from this Essar port is developing a 16 MTPA Iron Ore berth and 14 million tonne Coal terminals at Paradip in Orissa. Essar Ports is also developing a 20 million tonne dry bulk terminal at Salaya, Gujarat.
It is among the country's largest owners and operators of ports and projects under execution include A 20-million tonne all-weather deep draft port and jetty for handling dry at Hazira and a 20-million tonne integrated terminal facility for handling dry bulk at Salaya.
At Paradip it is building a 14-million tonne deep draught coal berth, as part of an agreement with the Paradip Port Trust to execute a BOT (build-operate-transfer) project, with rights to operate the berth for 30 years. Another project there pertains to a 16 million tonne mechanisation terminal as a part of ten years License Agreement with Paradip Port Trust for export of dry bulk cargo.