Team Blitz India
NEW DELHI: Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone Ltd (APSEZ) has received environmental and coastal regulation zone clearance from the Centre to double the capacity of the Mundra port at a cost of Rs 45,000 crore, as per an ET report.
These approvals will allow the company to nearly double capacity to 514 million tonnes, the report claimed.
This expansion may bolster APSEZ’s position when negotiating an extension of the concession period for the Mundra port with the Gujarat government. The period is set to expire in 2031 after a 30-year term.
APSEZ applied to the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) of the Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change to increase Mundra’s capacity by 289 million tonnes to 514 million tonnes as part of an expansion plan covering 3,335 hectares.
This expansion will accommodate multi-purpose, liquid, gas, and cryogenic cargo. The EAC has recommended the expansion, and the final approval from the ministry is just a formality, the business daily claimed.
Located in Gujarat’s Kutch district, the Mundra port currently has capacity and necessary environmental approvals to handle 225 million tonnes of cargo annually. This includes 9.5 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs).
As India’s largest commercial port and top container port by volume, Mundra managed 179.6 million tonnes of cargo, including 7.4 million TEUs, in FY24. This accounts for over a quarter of all cargo volumes and more than a third of container cargo in India.
