Major gains for minor ports

Sunita K
20 September 2003

Minor ports are outsmarting major ones by notching up a higher growth rate. And the Adani group, which runs the Mundra Port, is leading the race

Ahmedabad: Ports and port-based activities have always been a major area of activity in Gujarat, the western Indian state with the country's largest coastline. And it is minor ports that have notched up a higher growth rate rather than the major ones.

And as of now, Mundra Port, owned by the Rs 4,600 crore city-based Adani group, is being termed the fastest-growing port in the country. "In fact, Mundra has been hailed as a frontline port in the handling of bulk dry and liquid cargo and container handling," says Gautam Adani, chairman, Adani group.

Mundra is now poised for crude handling for Indian Oil and Hindustan Petroleum in two-to-three years' time. Initially, almost 80 per cent of the trade executed by the flagship company of the Adanis, Adani Exports Ltd (AEL), was through the Kandla and Mumbai ports.

Says Adani: "These ports were plagued by congestion and berthing delays, resulting in heavy demurrage expenses and additional storage and handling charges. Removing these infrastructure bottlenecks was a necessity." With this objective, the group promoted Adani Port Ltd (APL) in mid-1993, which is Mundra Port's terminal operator company.

Besides APL, Gujarat Maritime Board [GMB] and Gujarat Industrial Investment Corporation [GIIC] have also floated Gujarat Adani Port Ltd [GAPL], which is the developer of off-shore structures and infrastructure facilities, while APL is the owner of all the dry and liquid cargo storage facilities on the site, in addition to any storage facility that may come up at Mundra.