Ennore Port - The Future

The Future

The Planning Commission has approved a rail connectivity for Ennore Port to the coal, iron and container terminals. There is a US$230-million expansion for the port in progress. An iron ore terminal is currently in the process of construction by PSA Sical. The terminal will have a capacity for 12 million tonnes of cargo per year, expandable to 15/20 million tonnes per year. Facilities include a jetty, ship loader, mechanized handling system with conveyor, storage, and a wagon unloading system. The port is expanding its cargo handling capacity to 87 million tonnes a year in the next 5 years as mandated by the Union Government, according to a press release from Ennore Port Ltd.

Though the port started as a dirty port to take over the coal and ore handling from the Chennai Port, it has suggested a proposal for a modern container terminal. The facility would have a capacity to handle 1.5 million TEUs (18 million tonnes). The port has started competing with the Chennai Port on handling of container traffic. Recently, the Nissan-Renault car manufacturing company picked it over the Chennai Port for the car exports. To facilitate this, a US$320-million expansion has been approved and will commence by March 2009. The port also won Toyota for its exports of cars manufactured near Bangalore. Mitsui is working on creating an auto yard in the port to facilitate the exports. The port is also planning to build a four-lane road linking the new terminal with the national highway (NH-5).

Construction of a car export terminal with a capacity of handling 400,000 cars annually at the port has been completed, which Japanese car-maker Nissan Motors will use to export 1,80,000 cars per year once fully executed, though exports are expected to commence from 28 January 2011. Construction of the terminal has cost 1,200 million and the facilities will include a berth, a 12-m draft after dredging of the basin and a parking yard of 175,000 sq.m. A coal terminal and iron ore terminal are also being developed at a total investment of 8,800 million. The coal terminal, constructed at a cost of 4,000 million with a capacity to handle 8 million tonnes of coal, is expected to commence on 28 January 2011. The iron ore terminal was constructed at a cost of 4,800 million with a capacity to handle 12 million tonnes annually and was opened in January 2011 but is yet to start commercial operations. However, since the Supreme Court put a blanket ban in July 2011 on mining in the mineral-rich Bellary-Hospet belt in Karnataka, on which the terminal is totally dependent on, to check environmental damage arising from rampant illegal mining, Sical Logistics is seeking to handle diversified cargo. The container terminal will be built at a cost of 14,070 million (US$312 million) with an annual capacity of 1.5 million TEU. Work on the new Ennore Container Terminal is scheduled to take 33 months and it is expected to be operational by the end of 2013. The concession will be awarded on a build, operate and transfer (BOT) basis for a period of 30 years. The terminal will have a quay length of 1,000 m and an estimated throughput of 1.5 million TEUs annually. The terminal will provide 15-m water depth at the berths and will be able to handle three container vessels of up to 8,000 TEUs simultaneously.

The port is awaiting the Central Government's permission to start a capital dredging work. There is a special economic zone (SEZ) coming up near the port covering 3,000 acres (12 km2) to take advantage of the proximity to the port. It is for engineering, information technology, auto components, garments and leather products. It would have container freight station facilities and free trade warehousing zone.

With the inauguration of three new terminals to handle non-TNEB coal, iron ore and cars in 2010, the installed capacity of the port had doubled from 15 million tonnes to 30 million tonnes.

A 1,700-million capital dredging project to create necessary depths to handle larger vessels was commenced at the port on 26 February 2011. With this, the port's channel depth has been increased from 16 m CD to 18 m CD.

In December 2011, Manali Petrochemicals Ltd entered into an agreement to set up storage and handling facility at the port for bulk import of propylene oxide, a major input for the derivative plants of the company. The facility is expected to be ready in about a year.