MARG's shipyard/port likely to be ready by next year

Diversified MARG Ltd expects its proposed Rs 900-crore ship yard-cum-minor port at Mugaiyur near here to be operational by 2012.

“We are waiting for the environmental clearance ... We are expecting the project to take at least 13 months to become operational,” MARG Ltd Chairman and Managing Director Mr G.R.K. Reddy said.

The ship yard-cum-minor port is situated at Mugaiyur on the East Coast Road. The company has invested about Rs 900 crore in the project, he told PTI here in an interaction.

Once operational, this would be the second port for MARG, which began its operations in the Eastern region with the Karaikal Port in Puducherry.

In 2006, MARG Ltd entered into an agreement with the Puducherry Government for the Karaikal Port to handle four million tonnes of cargo annually. The phase I of the project comprised two berths as completed in April 2009 at a cost of Rs 416 crore.

MARG was planning expansion of the Karaikal Port and under phase II it would add two more berths at an estimated cost of Rs 1,569 crore, Mr Reddy said.

For raising funds, India Infrastructure Fund (IIF), managed by IDFC Project Equity Company Limited, would be investing the funds in Karaikal Port Pvt Ltd, a subsidiary of MARG Ltd.

Under the second phase, over 50,000 sq. m of covered warehouses for storage of fertiliser, cement, sugar and project cargo would become operational.

According to company officials, Karaikal Port is envisaged to have a total of nine berths capable of handling 47 million tonnes per annum and developed over three phases.

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