Adani Group plans Rs57,594-cr expansion at Mundra port

The environment ministry last week granted approval for expansion of a waterfront development plan at the Mundra Port, according to the minutes of the meeting published on the environment ministry’s Parivesh portal on Thursday.

The proposed expansion of Mundra’s waterfront development plan (WFDP) includes extending the quay length by another 14,470 metres, augmenting back-up facilities for handling multi-purpose, liquid, gas and cryogenic cargo.

The Mundra port expansion involves extension of the eastern and western breakwater by 500 metres each in the south port and constructing a 5,000 metre-long breakwater on the eastern side of west port. This would require dredging of some 350 million cubic metres of sand and other materials from the sea bed.

The expansion will be undertaken within the approved area of 5,170 hectares of water front development plan, APSEZ wrote in an application filed with the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) of the ministry of environment, forest and climate change.

“For the expansion of WFDP plan, it is important to utilize the maximum marine development potential,” APSEZ said in the application.

“Based on the future cargo projections and business requirement of the hinterland, it is proposed to develop the port with the flexibility to handle various cargoes. Type of berth and type of cargo is a commercial and business requirement. Hence, expansion plan will be developed with those flexibilities to accommodate berths and storage facilities as multi-purpose. The expansion plan will consist of berths at various locations, material handling area, cargo storage area, operational and utility area, internal connectivity, drainage, greenbelt and various utilities, amenities and bunkering facilities,” the company said.

Besides the Mundra port, APSEZ runs nine other ports and terminals on the eastern and western coasts of India, which together account for 24 per cent of the country’s overall port capacity. APSEZ ports handled a combined cargo of more than 200 million tonnes in the year ended March 2019.

The Adani Group is expanding aggressively across sectors that include logistics, mining, energy, construction and defence – both through expansion of existing capacity and green field investment as well as through acquisitions.  

Gautam Adani-led Adani Group, which recently forayed into petrochemical and airport spaces, is continuing with aggressive expansions, with a focus on new business areas like logistics, mining, energy, construction and agro commodities, in order to diversify its portfolio.

In January this year, Adani Group forayed into the petrochemicals sector, after signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with German chemicals major BASF SE, to evaluate a joint investment in the acrylics value chain entailing an investment of two billion euros (about Rs 16,000 crore). The proposed site for the facility is at Mundra port in Gujarat and a feasibility study will be completed by the end of 2019.

In February, the group forayed into the airport space as it bagged the rights to operate, manage and develop half-a-dozen airports in the country, namely Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Jaipur, Guwahati, Thiruvananthapuram and Mangalore, over the next 50 years.

“With these six airports under concession, the Adanis will become the third largest private airport operator in terms of passengers handled, after the GMR group and GVK group,” ratings agency ICRA said in a note.

City Gas is another area the company is betting on. In the ninth city gas bid in November last year, Adani Gas bagged licence to retail Compressed Natural Gas to automobiles and piped cooking gas to households in 13 cities and towns. In the same round, it also won the licence for another nine geographical areas in a joint venture with state-owned Indian Oil Corporation.

Further, in the tenth bid round concluded last month, it bagged rights to two geographical areas in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.The group, which is already active in construction space, also bid for redevelopment of Dharavi slum in Mumbai, one of the most ambitious slum redevelopment projects in the country. The company has already expressed its plans to actively engage in the construction business.

Adani Enterprises said on Saturday that its subsidiary Adani Defence Systems and Technologies has acquired Alpha Design Technologies. “Adani Defence Systems and Technologies — a wholly owned subsidiary of the firm — has acquired the control of Alpha Design Technologies,” Adani Enterprises said in a BSE filing.