Mundra Port to get Rs 3000 cr more

The international container terminal at Mundra Port, handed over to the multinational container handling company P&O Ports, and the 57-km Mundra-Adipur railway line, the longest railway link to be constructed by the private sector in India, were formally dedicated to the nation at Mundra in Kutch district of Gujarat on Saturday.

Attended by Union railway minister Nitish Kumar, chief minister Narendra Modi (the state government is a partner in the development of the Mundra port) and Jimmy Sarbh, director, South Asia and Middle East, P&O Ports, the function gained significance as India's first private special economic zone (SEZ) will come up at Mundra in 2004.

Gautam Adani, chairman of the Adani group which promotes the Mundra Port, said the port will become a part of the SEZ and the Adani group plans to invest an additional Rs 3,000 crore on the port over the next five years.

"We have already spent around Rs 2,000 crore on the project and with the SEZ set to come up in 2004, the group will invest an additional Rs 3,000 crore in the next five years," he said.

Jimmy Sarbh said while the company has already invested Rs 1,000 crore in the project, it will invest another Rs 1,000 crore at Mundra in the second phase.

"We are here to stay and we have grown at all places where the company has ventured before. But there are a few things that the state and the central government must consider. To thrive, there ought to be an efficient rail network connecting ports and an equally good road network, only then will container traffic prosper," he said.

Chief minister Narendra Modi said the Mundra SEZ, which will come up in 2004, will be the only SEZ that will be connected to a port, airport and the rail network.

However, Gautam Adani said the government is still not clear on the SEZ Act and the group is waiting for the government to finalise provisions of the Act before large-scale investments can be made for the proposed special economic zone.

Nitish Kumar said the first experiment of a private sector player laying a railway line has been attempted with success at Mundra.

"We will run the trains on this rail and the revenue will be shared. I assure Gujarat that any proposal for port connectivity will be given immediate clearance by the railways," Kumar said at the ceremony.

R K Singh, chairman of the Railway Board, said container traffic is most efficiently run through the rail network and the railways will expedite the Gandhidham-Palanpur gauge conversion work so that containers from Mundra and Kandla can be transported more efficiently through the rail network.

Mundra Port in Kutch, promoted by the Adani group, commenced operations about four years ago and is poised to become one of India's top five ports, according to Gautam Adani.

The port is projected to handle 38 million tonnes of cargo by 2008-09 and about six million tonnes of cargo during the current fiscal.