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JSW Group is considering new investments in the ports sector on the Eastern coast of the country. The Group has already invested about ₹1,000 crore on the West coast.
The new investments will consolidate the Group’s presence in the sector, said Chairman and Managing Director of the Group, Sajjan Jindal, on Sunday.
He was addressing media persons after signing a concession agreement with the Railway Ministry and the Government of Maharashtra.
On the West coast, the group has ports in Dharamtar and Jaigarh in Maharashtra. In Goa, it has a port called South West, which provides logistic support to the JSW steel plant in Vijayanagar, Karnataka.
Jindal said that Group has invested about ₹1,000 crore in the three ports and would invested another ₹2,000 crore in the next two years. The port business offers growth opportunities to the Group.
Concession agreementJSW Jaigarh Port Ltd (JSWJPL), an arm of JSW Infrastructure Ltd, entered into a 30-year concession agreement with Konkan Railway Corporation and the Maharashtra Government, for developing 33.7 km of new railway corridor, which will connect Jaigarh port in Ratnagiri district to Digni station on the Konkan Rail network. JSWJPL will develop the rail line as a Public Private Partnership in 30 months.
The three-way venture is called Jaigarh Digni Rail Limited (JDRL), with JSWJPL, Konkan Railway and Maharashtra Maritime Board as shareholders. The project cost is ₹771 crores, which will be funded through a combination of equity and debt.
Jindal said the rail line will not pass through any forest area, but the alignment of the line is through the difficult terrain of Sahyadri mountains. About 18 km of the line will have to be laid through mountain tunnels. The rail corridor is expected to handle around 12 million tonnes of cargo per year.
Jindal added that once the rail line is operational, Jaigarh port will be able to handle a much higher volume of cargo. By 2020, the port will be able to handle about 200 million tonnes cargo. Diverse cargo such as grains, sugar and coal will be handled by the port, he said.
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