Work on expansion of Odisha’s Dhamra port to start soon, says Adani

Reported by Chinmaya Dehury

Bhubaneswar, Aug 18:

Adani Group head Gautam Adani today said work on the second phase expansion of  Dhamra Port in Bhadrak district of Odisha would start soon.

“We are going to start work on the expansion of Dhamra port soon. Orders have already been placed for the same. Our vision is to build the Dhamra port on the scale of the Mundra port,” said Adani after meeting with chief minister Naveen Patnaik and chief secretary G C Pati at the state secretariat here.

The Odisha government had already cleared all hurdles for the expansion of capacity of the port from 25 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) to 100 MTPA in five years’ time, he said. When complete, the port would have13 berths, including two fully mechanised berths, he added

The Adani Group, it may be noted, had acquired the Dhamra Port from Larsen & Tubro (L & T) and Tatas.

In May this year, Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone (APSEZ), part of the Adani Group, had struck a deal with the L&T and Tata Steel to buy Dhamra Port Company Ltd (DPCL) for Rs 5, 500 crore.

DPCL chief executive officer (CEO) Santosh K Mohapatra said that the state government had approved the proposal for an additional 700 acres of land for second phase expansion work on which would start soon.

The port, which commenced commercial operations in May 2011, has already obtained environment clearance for the proposed expansion estimated to cost about Rs 10,000 crore.

The second phase capacity ramp up would also pave the way for a five MTPA liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal to be set up within the port premises by Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL). The terminal, to be set up at a cost of Rs 5,000 crore, would require 150 acres of land. IOCL and DPCL have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the project.

Dhamra port handled 14.31 million tonnes of cargo in 2013-14, 29.3% higher than the 11.07 million tonnes it handled in 2012-13. This included 10.23 million tonnes of import cargo and 4.08 million tonnes of exports. A total of 192 vessels, including 46 Cape size vessels, called at the port in the last fiscal.

According to official sources, the Adani Group chairman also discussed with the chief minister and the chief secretary the setting up of a power plant at Chhendipad in Angul district. “The government has assured him that it would consider the proposal,” said sources.

However, the capacity of the proposed power project is not yet known. It is to be noted that the Group had bagged integrated coal mine developer-cum-operator (MDO) operations contract for Machakatta block in Odisha owned by MahaGuj Collieries with reserves of 1.2 BT tonnes and Chendipada block, also in Odisha, owned by UCM Coal Company with reserves of 1.5 BT.