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Kolkata, Oct. 6 The Kandla Port Trust is planning massive capacity expansion and has invited bids for several projects, including four multi-purpose berths, cargo handling facilities at Tuna Tekra, where a special economic zone (SEZ) is to come up, and additional facilities at Vadinar.

“At Vadinar, which is about 260 km by road from Kandla, we’ve three single-point moorings – (SPMs) two by Indian Oil and one by Essar Oil. But we would like to explore opportunities for new facilities for handling any kind of traffic, not only liquid bulk by way of SPMs but also dry bulk and containerised traffic as also other facilities such as bunkering, shipbuilding and ship-repair,” Mr M.A. Bhasakarachar, Deputy Chairman of Kandla Port Trust, told Business Line.

“Vadinar, offering an average draught of 34 metres, should be an ideal choice for any private entrepreneur keen to invest in port projects.”

The port authorities, as the Deputy Chairman said, have made some progress with regard to constructing four berths in BOT basis.

Eleven firms have been short-listed, said the Deputy Chairman of the largest cargo handling port.

“We’ve also made upfront proposal to the Tariff Authority for Major Ports (TAMP) for probable tariff structures in respect to the proposed berths and we understand TAMP is about to firm-up its view on this and we’ll go for the next step once the notification has been issued by TAMP,” he observed.

The port has 12 berths (excluding six oil jetties) and the proposed berths will be numbered 13, 14, 15 and 16.

As for the plan to have four berths constructed at Tuna Tekra, about 10 km from the Kandla port, the Deputy Chairman said that nearly 40 firms had obtained the papers and preliminary discussion had been initiated with 10 of them.

“Since the last date is to be extended, we hope to get more responses,” Mr Bhaskarachar added.

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