At a function organised to celebrate the occasion, ostentation was the name of the game. No expenses were spared to ensure that the even went down in the annals of maritime history as the grandest yet. All roads led to a hitherto unknown township as celebrities poured in from all parts of the state driven in the snazziest vehicles and luxury buses to participate in the event while the locals trudged down dust trackes to rub shoulders with the glitterati.

As if that were not enough, planeloads of guests were also flown in fromMumbai, Delhi and even Singapore where the Adani group has a joint venture for getting up an edible oil refinery with the Wilmar Group of Singapore, Ane while the Capital is not linked directly to Bhuj, the nearest airport Mundra in Gujarat, a planeload of 120 personal guests of the Adani group chairman including several media persons were specially flown in from Delhi for this occasion.

And though Union home minister L K Advani and surface transport minister Rajnath Singh failed to show up due to "unforeseen circumstances" like pressing security matters in the case of the former and the ongoing port strike in the case of the latter, their absence was more than made up for by the Chief Minister of Gujarat, Keshubhai Patel and his Cabinet cronies and a solitary representative from the Centre, minister of state for defence Harin Pathak.

The guests waxed eloquent about the achievements of the 39-year old chairman of the Adani Group, Gautam Adani who in a span of 10 years has steered the company from scratchto a Rs 2,400 crore group.

But it was not adulation and bouquets all the way for the Adani group. Restive local unions, headed by the Mundra Taluka Sewa Samiti, which had observed a hartal a day prior to the dedication ceremony to protest against the alleged high-handedness of the Adani Port officials , staged a noisy protest while the ceremonies were on in a bid to highlight their problems with the company.

It is being alleged that the company officials had been trying to grab private land and had even been denying the locals permission to use the road leading to the port despite the fact that it is a public road, a contention which company officials strongly deny.

But even these minor glitches could not steal the thunder of the event which will undoubtedly rewrite the rules of maritime trade as it exists in the country. As Gautam Adani himself pointed out, even during the trial runs which the port has been undergoing over the past several months, it has generated more than Rs 100 crore by way ofcustoms duties alone, a figure which is expected to breach the Rs 500 crore a year mark within the next five years now that the port has been fully commissioned.

Furthermore, it is expected to contribute more than Rs 25 crore per year by way of wharfage as well.

In addition, the port has enormous potential for further expansion. Already the public-sector NPCL has commenced negotiations with the Mundra Port authorties for sourcing its crude supplies for its refinery project at Bhatinda in Punjab. The PSU is also planning to install a single point mooring (SPM) and related pipeline at the port.