BENGALURU : JSW Infrastructure has announced that it has emerged as the winning bidder for development of a commercial port at Keni in Karnataka on public private partnership basis. The Karnataka Maritime Board, Government of Karnataka has issued the Letter of Award (LOA) to JSW Infrastructure, the company said in a statement.

“As per the RFP document, the estimated cost of the Project is Rs. 4,119 Crore with initial capacity of 30 MTPA”, it said.

It is envisaged as an all-weather, greenfield, multi-cargo, direct berthing, deep-water commercial port for handling all types of the cargoes on the west coast in north Karnataka region to serve the industries in the area covering Ballary, Hosapete, Hubballi, Kalaburagi and south Maharashtra, the statement said.

To begin with, the capacity of the proposed port shall be 30 MTPA in initial phase with further potential to increase substantially in the long run, it said.

The proposed Keni port is located between two operational major ports — Mormugao Port in the north and New Mangalore Port in the south.

The proposed port’s hinterland is primarily of coal and coke cargo which is being utilised for steel, cement and power plants, the company said.

It is also further supported by iron ore, limestone, dolomite handlings and export of finished steel products.

As per the Karnataka Maritime Perspective Plan, Karnataka is currently having hinterland potential of 44 MTPA of cargo and it is expected to increase to 117 MTPA by 2035.

On comparison of the future demand and the capacity being handled by the present ports, there is a need for a deep draft port to fulfil the cargo handling gap requirement in future, it said.

“Hence, the concept of alternate port for NMPA has emerged, which aims at development of the port at Keni”, the statement added.