CHENNAI: Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) has drawn up plans to replicate its success at Mundra port in terms of cargo handling, at the Kattupalli port as well. On an average, Mundra port had handled over 100 million tonnes of cargo for three years in a row since 2016.  “Our vision is to have 30 berths at  Adani Kattupalli port to handle all types of commodities including coal,  liquefied natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas, including chemicals,” said Mr. Ennarasu Karunesan, CEO — Southern Ports, APSEZ.

 

APSEZ acquired Kattupalli port from L&T in June 2018 and renamed it as Adani Kattupalli Port Pvt. Ltd (AKPPL). It has capacity to handle nearly 25 million tonnes of cargo, which is to be enhanced soon. Currently, the port has two berths that handle containers, bulk and break-bulk cargoes, and automotive vehicles.  A third berth is under construction. “In the next six months, liquid terminal operations are set to commence. We will also have an operational warehouse of 3.6 lakh sq.ft. and liquid tank farms with a capacity of 60,000 KL. The liquid tank capacity  will be expanded to 3 lakh KL,”  Mr. Karunesan said. AKPPL had also implemented Terminal Operating System (TOS),  a first-of-its-kind initiative in the country which supported the entire supply chain in doing business smoothly, Mr. Karunesan said. He also said that AKPPL had installed a  world-class drive-through container scanner, the first in South India Ports, capable of scanning 120 containers in an hour. “All these measures are set to help in an exponential increase in the cargo volumes in the next five years and would enable us to emerge as one of the globally recognised ports in the  South Asia,” Mr. Karunesan said.

 

AKPPL, India’s most modern port are providing the Export-Import Trade in Chennai, Bengaluru and Southern India a whole new dimension of service, speed and sophistication. We are also coming up with a new warehouse comprising an area of 360,000 Sq.ft and liquid tank farms with a capacity of 60,000 KL currently and envisaged to a capacity of 3,00,000 KL.

 

Liquid Terminal Operations are expected to commence by Q2 FY 19-20 and AKPPL is envisaged to have an exponential increase in the cargo volumes in the next five years by virtue of signing an MoU with the Government of Tamil Nadu (GoT) for its major expansion projects and thus Kattupalli Port will emerge as one of the globally recognized ports in South Asia”.