The state-owned Deendayal Port Authority has floated a plan to build a satellite port on a patch of land between the bulk cargo terminal run by Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd at Tuna-Tekra and Kandle Creek.
This would be its second satellite port, which it would be building with an estimated cost of over Rs 20,000 crore. Tuna-Tekra is a satellite port located some 15 km away from Kandla.
There is no detailed project report yet for the proposed satellite port. According to the port authorities, they have to see the feasibility and the cost as per the master plan.
They have sent the first proposal to the Ministry of Ports, Shipping, and Waterways, and if the Ministry concurs, they will go ahead with it, according to the port officials.
Currently, Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd is running a dry bulk terminal at Tuna-Tekra.
Dubai government-owned global port operator DP World Ltd is constructing a 2.19 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) capacity terminal estimated to cost Rs 4,243.64 crore at the satellite port.
A tender shall be floated by the port authority to build a multipurpose cargo berth at Tuna-Tekra with private funds of Rs 1,719.22 crore upon securing government approval to restructure the project terms after two earlier unsuccessful attempts, said the official.
Kandla port, which is now being primed to be one of the first ports to become a mega port in the country, started operations in year 1931 with just 2 jetties and scanty infrastructure.
India’s second biggest state-owned port by volumes handled, Deendayal Port Authority, has a capacity to load 269.10 million tonnes (mt) of cargo a year.
In FY24, Deendayal Port Authority handled 132.3 million tonnes (mt) of cargo.
By year 2030, at an annual growth rate of 10%, the port is expected to double its cargo to 267 million tonnes.
The port of Kandla serves the Northern India hinterland, including the land-locked states of NCR Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.
