The SPI Ports, a division of the Chennai based Rs 1316 crore SPI group, has joined the race with Arcelor-Mittal and Adhunik Metaliks to set up a greenfield port at south Barunei Muhan in Kendarapara district of Orissa.
The port, to be located to the north of Mahanadi and south of Gahirmatha marine sanctuary, is proposed to be developed in phases with an investment of Rs 1550 crore.
The port will have 3 berths and a container handling facility in the first phase and the number of berths will go up to 12 in the final phase of construction. The port aims to handle traffic of 41.79 million tonne per annum by 2021.
A three member team of company today made a presentation before the senior officials of the state government for setting up of a port at Barunei Muhan.
It stated that the cargo traffic is expected to increase substantially in the east coast in next 15 years. This is likely to increase to 770 million tonne in 2025 from 255 million tonne in 2007-08.
The coal handling by the ports in the east coast is likely to go up to 182 million tonne by 2025 from 72 million tonne at present. Similarly, the limestone traffic is projected to increase to 30 million tonne from 2 million tonne and fertilizer cargo is expected to rise to 25 million tonne by 2025 from 9 million tonne at present. The company officials pointed out that given the vast reserves of natural resources, Orissa has good potential for traffic growth.
The pre-feasibility study for the proposed port was taken up by Scott Wilson Kirk Patrick, an UK based company having offices in Delhi and Chennai. The company has indicated that it will require 1000 hectares of land for setting up the port and another 750 hectares for other port related industries like power plants, special economic zones (SEZs) and limestone processing.
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However, no displacement of people will be required since the selected site is far away from the habitation. If the state government agrees to sign memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the company, it will complete the project within a period of 4 years.
Sources said, the port will be connected to National Highway-5 between Masakani and Taradeipur village in Kendarapara district and the project will be linked with the Haridaspur-Rail link.
The project will have a debt equity ratio of 70:30 with the debt to be tied up with a consortium of Indian banks and financial institutions. Some of the banks, who would like to finance the project include ICICI Bank, State Bank of India, State Bank of Hyderabad, IDFC among others. The equity component of the project is estimated at Rs 465crore, sources added.
The traffic handling capacity of the port is projected at 19.76 million tonne in 2012, 26.32 million tonne in 2015, 33.19 million tonne in 2018 and 41.79 million tonne in 2021.The cargo to be handled through it includes coking coal, thermal coal, iron ore, container, fertiliser, limestone and other commodities.