In its bid to develop as an international maritime logistics hub, Kandla Port Trust is planning to develop an integrated port facilities at Vadinar,
near Jamnagar. The port is planning to develop this through private public partnership. The facilities will include offshore berthing facilities at Vadinar, dry buil cargo handling facilities, liquid bulk terminal, bukering complex, ship buildint and ship repair facilities.
It will also st up a single point mooring and allied facilities at Vadinar in the Gulf of Kachch. It is also considering a box terminal.
Kandla Port Trust has invited global invitation for expression of interest for development of port facilities at Vadinar. The tender is opening on November 26.
The port had developed the country’s first ever offshore oil terminal at Vadinar for handling crude oil through a single buoy mooring in the year 1978. It has also developed satellite port at offshore oil terminal at Vadinar.
Recently, the Kandla Port has added one more feather on its crown by handling 31.93 million metric tonnes (MMT) of cargo during April to August 2008, which is the highest throughput achieved among Indian Major Ports and maintaining its number-one position among the Major Ports in India consistently, as against the quantity of 25.87 MMT handled during the corresponding period of the previous fiscal. The Port has, thus, registered a growth of 6.05 MMT during this period.
As of now, the overall growth rate recorded by the Kandla Port during the current fiscal is pitched at 23.40%, as against the national growth rate of 8.37%. In the crude oil handling at Offshore Oil Terminal, Vadinar, the Port has achieved commendable increase by handling 18.46 MMT during the period, as against 14.41 MMT handled during the corresponding period of last fiscal. The performance of the Port in all parameters has been quite phenomenal during the period of current fiscal and by the close of the fiscal the Port is expected to create national history in cargo handling.
Going by the present trend, the Kandla Port is all set to cross 70 MMT by the close of the fiscal, 2008-09.
Apart from this Vadinar facility, in order to meet with the global demands and to provide concessional and cost effective infrastructure to the entrepreneurs, it is proposed to set up a port-based Special Economic zone at Kandla on the west of dry cargo berths at New Kandla and at the proposed Tuna Port.
Various port-based industries such as transhipment terminal, international bunkering terminal, ship repair facilities, LNG terminal, wood products terminal, etc., will be included in the SEZ. Ministry of commerce & industries has accorded formal approval for setting up a port-based multi product SEZ over an area of 5000 hact.
The port handled 1.67 lakh TEUs during 2007-08, despite stiff competition posed by well developed and fullfledged container terminals of nearby ports like Mundra, Pipavav (both of them in Gujarat)and Jawaharlal Nehru in Maharashtra. “With the full-fledged container terminal at Kandla commissioned in March, 2007 moving into the phase of regular operations, there is high hope that the container traffic at the port will reach new heights in the next fiscal onwards and expected to operate with 100% capacity from 2008-09,” port officials said. The port is expected to cross 100 million tonnes mark by 2012.