India announces $6.84 bn investment to boost Kandla Port capacity

The new mega shipbuilding facility at the Kandla Port will develop technical capability in the country to manufacture big very large crude carrier (VLCC) or similar class of vessels with capacity up to 3,20,000 tonnes deadweight tonnage (DWT), the ministry said in a press statement.

The facility will have capacity to produce 32 new ships and repair 50 old ships every year. Spread over an area of more than 8,000 acres, the new facility will have components like marina, fishing harbour, townships and marine industrial cluster. The project is likely to unlock tremendous value for trade interests as well as employment avenues in the region, especially in the ancillary manufacturing and assembly units to come and operate in the cluster.

“We are really excited at the possibilities that this new investment is likely to bring towards contributing meaningfully towards Viksit Bharat. Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, we are working towards building capacities in our country which will not only propel the growth proposition but also allow it to become a platform of production for the world at large,” said Sarbananda Sonowal, union minister for ports, shipping and waterway.

On the other hand, to restructure the port, a new state of the art port is being developed outside of the Kandla creek, towards Tuna. This new port will be developed using the 6 km available waterfront. With an investment of ₹27,000 crore, an additional capacity of 135 MTPA will be developed to the existing volume of Kandla Port.

The new port will handle all existing cargo jetties handling dry bulk cargo, with modern cargo handling equipment and more efficient evacuation systems. This will allow Kandla to be converted into Liquid Jetties, hence, building tremendous scope to handle liquid cargo. This will tremendously improve the waiting of liquid tanker vessels and improvement in the turnaround time of liquid vessels. Considering the new port’s proximity to the navigation channel, the dredging requirement will come down considerably, allowing bigger vessels to dock here.

The Deendayal Port Authority (DPA) has also been working on several other projects on mission mode to enhance capacity of Kandla Port significantly. A new mega cargo terminal, with a capacity of 2.19 million twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU), is being constructed at Tuna Tekra under Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode. A new multi cargo terminal at Tuna Tekra is also under consideration. This will add 18.33 MTPA to the existing capacity. Three new oil jetties are in the process of being constructed, which will further add 10 MTPA capacity. One single buoy mooring (SBM) and 2 product jetties are also being constructed at Vadinar. This will further shore up the liquid cargo handling capacity by 24.5 MTPA. A ship repair facility project at Vadinar is also under consideration which will be capable of servicing 32 vessels per year, concluded the statement by the ministry.

ALCHEMPro News Desk (SG)