The Hindu Business Line : Mundra SEZ roll out early next year

THE first phase of the Mundra Special Economic Zone (SEZ), being developed by the Rs 5,000-crore Adani Group at an estimated overall cost of over Rs 12,000 crore, will be ready for use by early 2004.

The first private sector SEZ in the country, envisaged to be developed in three phases over some 30 years, will cost of Rs 3,000 crore.

The Mundra SEZ, the second to come up in Kutch district after the Kandla SEZ, will be spread over 3,500 hectares and will have Rs 600 crore as equity. The Mundra SEZ is being designed and developed with a goal of bettering those in China, Singapore and Dubai. The targeted industries include textiles, light chemicals, food processing, pharmaceuticals and healthcare, light metallurgy and information technology.

The fillip to the augmentation of the SEZ has come in the form of the setting up of the Mundra International Container Terminal (MICT), with P&O Ports as the operator. The majority stake in the box terminal, which was acquired by P&O at $220 million, is now steadying its throughput at 1,20,000 TEU per annum. With Mundra offering the scope for handling Capsize vessels and fourth generation container vessels, the SEZ has already taken care of one of its most important requirements.

Meanwhile, the Adani group has already covered another of its flanks in its efforts towards setting up the SEZ in the form of the 57-km railway link between the Mundra port and Adipur that was dedicated to the nation by Union Minister for Railways, Mr Nitish Kumar, here on Saturday. With this, the stage has been set for a 100-km gauge conversion between Gandhidham and Palanpur by 2005.

"The Mundra port connectivity follows the one at Pipavav and has emerged as model in private sector participation in enhancing rail linkages for faster industrial growth in specific sectors," Mr Nitish Kumar said.

Earlier, the Gujarat Chief Minister, Mr Narendra Modi, dedicating the MICT to the nation, said Mundra had the potential to become an alternative to Colombo in container terminal traffic. Mr Modi called on the private players in the port sector to raise a corpus towards developing the 5,000-year Harappan site at Lothal as a museum.

"Gujarat, with its 1,600-km coast line, has only scratched the surface of private sector participation in port development with Mundra and Pipavav. The Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB) is set to emerge as the maritime powerhouse of India. Therefore, it would be only fitting that a port museum, tracing the growth of port sector in the country, is erected at Lothal."

Mr Gautam Adani, Chairman, Adani Group, said the company had signed a joint venture agreement with the Indian Oil Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd for setting up a single point mooring in Mundra for sourcing crude to their refineries.

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