Gujarat:
The Gujarat Maritime Board on Sunday said it aims to enhance the cargo handling capacity of a dozen odd non-major ports in the state by nearly 46 million tonnes this year.
In 2013-14, we target to add another 46 million tonnes (MT) of capacity at the non-major ports of the state, taking the total cargo handling to 412 Million Tonne Per Annum (MTPA), a Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB) official said.
At present, the capacity of South Port terminal-III in Mundra is being expanded by 5.5 MT by APSEZ, besides a coal jetty of 5 MT capacity set up at Salaya by the Essar group, a GMB official said.
"LNG Petronet is setting up a second LNG jetty at Dahej port having 2.5 MT capacity. It is coming at an investment of around Rs 1,000 crore, and is expected to be operational by first quarter of 2014," he said.
Dahej terminal has 10 MT capacity, and efforts are under way to have 15 MT handling capacity there, he added.
"At Akrimoti port in Kutch, ABG group is setting up a 4 MT jetty. The construction work has been completed and now landing place declaration has been initiated," the GMB official said.
Ultratech Cement Limited's (UTCLs) jetty in Kovaya at Pipavav port is being expanded by 5 MT. The dredging proposal has been received, construction may begin from next year, he said.
The GMB official said a bulk general cargo terminal at Hazira having 5 MT capacity has been set up and landing place declaration has been initiated.
A jetty with one MT capacity by the Indian Navy is almost complete at Porbandar, he said.
Referring to proposals for which construction work has not begin, the official said it may stretch over to next year.
A captive jetty having 5 MT capacity by Universal Success Enterprise Limited (USEL) is proposed at Bhogat, a terminal with one million tonne capacity at Bagasara is to come up, while a jetty having 3 MT capacity by ABG cement is proposed at Magdalla port (near Mora village) in Surat, and Sanghi group is slated to enhance the cement terminal capacity at Jakhau in Kutch by 8 MT.
During 2012-13, non-major ports in Gujarat handled about 287.81 MT of cargo compared to 259 MT handled during the previous year, a 11.11 per cent increase in the traffic handled.
Also, 43 MT of capacity was added during FY 2013, taking cumulative capacity of non-major ports in Gujarat to 366 MT.
GMB manages around 41 non-major ports in Gujarat.
