Adani to buy Dhamra port for 5,500 cr

Reported by Chinmaya Dehury

Bhubaneswar, May 17:

Ending the year long negotiationa, Adani Ports has finally agreed to acquire the strategic Dhamra Port located in Bhadrak district in Odisha from Tata Steel and L&T Infrastructure Development Projects (L&T IDPL) for Rs 5,500 crore, sources said.

The company signed an agreement to buy the port from Tata Steel and Larsen & Toubro, which have equal shares in the joint venture.

This is the largest port sector deal in India after the 2005 acquisition of Pipapav Port in Gujarat by APM Terminals BV from SKIL Infrastructure.

Dhamra Port Company Ltd (DPCL) was commissioned in May 2011 with an 18-km approach channel and a dedicated 62.7 km rail link to Bhadrak.

The port handled 14.3 million tonnes of cargo in the previous financial year.

DPCL, the operator, had been awarded a concession by the Odisha government to build and operate the port on Dhamra river in Bhadrak district for 34 years, including four years for construction.

Meanwhile, the state government has intiated the process for the second phase expansion of the port.

The Dhamra Port Company Ltd (DPCL) requires about 800 acres of land for the expansion of the project for which the MoEF has recently granted the environment clearance.

The expansion will allow the Dhamra port to exceed 100 million tonnes of cargo capacity by the year 2020 and thus allow Adani Ports to fulfill its stated vision of becoming a 200 million tonne ports business well before the year 2020, company sources said.