Ahmedabad, Oct 7: The Mundra Port in Gujarat, a joint venture between the state government-owned Gujarat Port Infrastructure Development Company and the Adani Group, is planning to go in for a Rs 500 crore expansion of its existing port facilities with the construction of a quay length of 1,100 metres for a container bulk terminal and a single buoy mooring facility off the Mundra coast.The port has recently completed construction of two additional berths for accomodating vessels upto 70,000 DWT. With this, four berths of the port totalling 900 metres have now become fully operational. These four berths alongwith a natural draft of 15 metres have made Mundra ideally equipped to cater to the trade needs of the land-locked northern Indian hinterland with ships larger than those capable of entering existing ports.
It may be mentioned that the other major port in the area, namely the state-owned Kandla Port is incapable of berthing ships weighing more than 30,000 tonnes on account of the relatively low water level.
The Mundra Port has thus far handled over 70 ocean going ships with a variety of dry and liquid cargoes including edible oils, petro products, fertilisers, sulphur, de-oiled cake, coal and coke, bauxite and bentonite.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.