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Adani Group gets Cabinet nod to build Tajpur port

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Kolkata: The Bengal government has awarded its greenfield deep sea port project at Tajpur in East Midnapore to Adani Ports and Special Economic Zones (APSEZ), India’s largest private port operator.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will soon formally hand over the Letter of Intent to APSEZ. The state Cabinet on Monday accorded approval to APSEZ for the port.

“The Tajpur Port tendering process was underway for a long time and finally Adani Ports has won the bid. The project has a total investment of Rs 25,000 crore of which Rs 15,000 crore will be for developing the port and the remaining Rs 10,000 crore for infrastructure creation. This investment will create around 25,000 direct and more than one lakh jobs indirectly for the people of the state,” state Urban Development and Municipal Affairs minister Firhad Hakim said.

“Tajpur Port will be located around 170 km from Kolkata and will bring in a new era. This will be the first greenfield port in the country. The state government will set up the necessary infrastructure related to the port’s development,” he said. The RFP (Request for Proposal) for the development of Tajpur Port on ‘Design, Build, Operate and Transfer Model’ was published by the state government on Sunday.

Many ports and logistics majors expressed initial interest but Adani and Sajjan Jindal-led JSW Group were the only two entities that participated in the financial bid and APSEZ emerged as the highest bidder.

The Supreme Court recently ruled that the Adani Group’s disqualification from the Visakhapatnam Port project cannot be treated as an “ineligibility” that bars it from bidding for other port projects. The port will have a deep draft of 12.1m with 18 km channel and with tidal support of 3.9m leading to a net 16m draft facility enabling large cape-size vessels of one lakh DWT.

It will also be linked to the industrial & economic corridor from Dankuni to Raghunathpur, being developed by the state. Once functional, the port will improve regional logistics and export efficiency of the state and unlock huge industrial and economic opportunities.

Meanwhile, the Cabinet further permitted setting up of the State Institute of Hotel Management on five acres of land on North Bengal University campus. “This will provide a further impetus to the tourism sector that is already flourishing in the state,” Hakim said.

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