Essar Ports to develop iron ore handling facility of Vizag port

Company will invest Rs 1200 cr over a period of three years

Essar Ports Ltd (EPL) today announced the taking over of the iron ore handling complex of Visakhapatnam port on a build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis, for a period of 30 years. Essar Vizag Terminals Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of EPL, will comprise three berths -two outer harbour and one inner harbour berths - with a combined capacity of 23 million tonnes per annum to be developed in two phases.

The project will be developed at a cost of Rs 1,200 crore over a period of three years, and will cover the upgradation of outer harbour berths (OB I & II) in Phase I and mechanisation of inner harbour berth (WQ-I) in Phase II.

"Enhancing the cargo handling capacity and mechanisation of port facilities for efficient management is crucial for long-term sustenance. We are sure Essar will develop the facility with latest state-of-the-art handling facilities and achieve higher loading rate thereby reducing the overall turnaround by at least 50 per cent," MT Krishna Babu, chairman, Vizag Port, said.

Commenting on the development, Rajiv Agarwal, CEO & managing director, Essar Ports, said the facility was well-placed to cater to both domestic and international steel industry. It will serve major iron ore consuming countries like China, Japan and Korea in addition to coastal movement within India. The facility has a dedicated rail connectivity to India's iron ore mining belt and would will take Essar Port's total east-coast iron ore handling capacity to 39 mtpa.

The company has three operational terminals at Hazira, Vadinar and Paradip ports with a current capacity of 104 million tonnes. It has plans to expand the capacity to more than 200 million tonnes over the next few years.

Essar Vizag Terminals has paid an upfront payment of Rs 185 crore to Vizag port for the complex. In addition, it will also pay a revenue share to the port, said Satyanand, CEO, of Essar Vizag Terminals. Vizag port handled close to 14 million tonnes of iron ore during 2014-15, highest by any port in the country.