Source: Business Line
Gujarat has robust infrastructure and has shown good manufacturing growth. It is also attracting a lot of investments as seen in the Vibrant Gujarat summit last month which saw investment commitments of over ₹26 lakh crore. The state’s port infrastructure is dominated by Adani Group’s Mundra Port, public sector Kandla Port and 48 non-major ports under the Gujarat Maritime Board.
Gujarat is an important trade gateway with several large industrial houses and companies having set up manufacturing facilities there and there is room for more modern ports in the state.
The management of JSW Infrastructure outlined some of their future plans at an analyst conference arranged by Kotak Institutional Equities and attended by more than 1000 institutional investors and over 200 companies.
Focus areas
Growth through greenfield investment is one of its focus areas, along with brownfield investments through which it plans to acquire specific terminals in major ports. JSW Infrastructure currently has 10 ports and terminals in India and one terminal in the UAE, with a combined operational capacity of 170 million tonnes per annum.
Two of the ports in its portfolio are greenfield. The port at Keni in Karnataka is coming for an investment of over ₹4000 crore and this will be commissioned in the next 4-5 years. It is investing around ₹2000 crore to set up Jatadhar Port in Odisha and while the concession agreement has not yet been signed, environmental clearance is already in place, and it is expected to be commissioned in the next three years.
The company had also initiated a proposal to build a port in Murbe, in Maharashtra’s Palghar district at a cost of ₹4,259 crore. The Maharashtra Maritime Board has now floated a global tender under the Swiss Challenge method inviting bids for development of the port. JSW Infrastructure has the opportunity to match the highest bid from the responses. The deadline for submitting bids is March 22 and the bids will be opened on March 27.
