Essar Ports is awaiting the approval of the Gujarat government and necessary clearances in order to go ahead with its proposed $1.8 billion expansion projects in two ports, Salaya and Hazira.
The country’s second-largest private sector port and terminal company signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Gujarat Maritime Board recently for these expansion projects.
The company plans to extend the the length of the waterfront at Hazira to 3 kilometer (km) with reclamation of the land. At the Salaya port, the firm plans to add five berths, thus enhancing the waterfront to around 1.5 km. The total investment for this expansion will involve $1.8 billion over a period of 10 years.
Part of the $27 billion Essar Group, Essar Ports provides port and terminal services for liquid, dry bulk, break bulk and general cargo, with an existing aggregate capacity of 104 Million metric tonne per annum (mn mtpa). The firm aims to shore up its capacity to 158 mn mtpa over the next few years.
Earlier, the firm commissioned its 16 mn mtpa dry bulk terminal at Paradip on the East coast of India which took the aggregate handling capacity of Essar Ports to 104 mn mtpa.
Two facilities located at Vadinar and Hazira on the west coast of India have capacities of 58 mn mtpa and 30 mn mtpa respectively. The Salaya project due for commissioning has a 20-million tonne integrated terminal facility for handling coal and pet coke used in power plants.
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