Adani Ports seeks nod to build two more berths at Kattupalli Port

Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd (APSEZ) has decided to pursue the original master plan for expanding Kattupalli port near Chennai by seeking permission to construct two more berths with an investment of Rs2,100 crores as resistance from fishermen and green activists stall an earlier move to turn the port it acquired from Larsen & Toubro Ltd in 2018 into a mega port.

Kattupalli Port has approval for constructing five berths with a total quay (berth) length of 1,900 metres, per the original master plan.

Currently, Kattupalli Port handles containers from two berths with quay length of 710 meters, 6 quay cranes, 15 rubber-tyred gantry cranes, 5,120 ground slots with the capacity to handle 1.2 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) a year.

In June 2018, APSEZ acquired Kattupalli Port from Larsen & Toubro for Rs 1,950 crore after India’s biggest engineering and construction firm demerged the shipyard and the captive port (later allowed to handle commercial cargo per the port policy of Tamil Nadu government) to facilitate the sale.

Marine Infrastructure Developer Pvt Ltd (MIDPL) proposes to develop the remaining approved two berths (berth no 4 and berth no 5. Marine Infrastructure Developer Pvt Ltd (MIDPL) is 97 percent owned by Adani Kattupalli Port Pvt Ltd, a unit of APSEZ, India’s biggest private port operator.

The mega expansion, though, ran into opposition from fishermen and green groups.

“The expansion plans have not yet happened due to stiff resistance from the public,” said a port industry expert, tracking the project.

“APSEZ is trying to address the issues, but it is not materialising easily because fishermen and the Pulicat Lake issues have been raised by environmental activists to block the mega expansion of the port. The expansion will take time because it’s a social issue, so they must tread carefully…The delay in securing environmental clearance for the mega expansion of Kattupalli Port, was also one of the reasons that led APSEZ to acquire Krishnapatnam and Gangavaram ports in Andhra Pradesh.

The move to convert berth no 3 at Kattupalli Port which is currently handling break bulk/ general cargo and non-hazardous liquid cargo, into a container berth, fits well with APSEZ’s strategy to shut container operations at Krishnapatnam Port and focus on the Chennai cluster.