Essar Ports Limited said it received a letter of award for a ₹2,276.06 crore cargo terminal in Gujarat, a project designed to add annual capacity of 18.33 million tonnes at Tuna Tekra.
Essar's Oct. 21 announcement estimates the project cost at ₹2,276.06 crore and puts the Deendayal Port Authority's (DPA) contribution at ₹723.49 crore. It describes Essar's own investment as more than ₹1,552.57 crore.
DPA's 2021 feasibility report assigned an estimated ₹1,552.57 crore to the concessionaire and ₹723.49 crore to the authority, figures that sum to the announced total. Essar Ports CEO Ashish Rajgarhia separately described the investment as “approximately ₹2,000 crore.” The company's announcement does not reconcile these investment descriptions.
Essar said its bid ranked highest in a global tender. The project is planned as a 30-year build-operate-transfer concession under India's public-private partnership route.
Plans call for four berths measuring 300 meters each, with capacity for vessels of up to 170,000 deadweight tonnes and a draft of up to 18 meters. Essar said DPA would handle dredging for the approach channel, berthing areas and turning basins, and provide a shared access road. The company expects the additional capacity to ease pressure on existing dry-cargo berths.
Essar says its ports portfolio has about 60 million tonnes of annual operating capacity across India, Indonesia and the United Kingdom. It also says it previously developed 168 million tonnes of annual capacity in India and monetized 148 million tonnes through transactions.
A separate planned container terminal at Tuna Tekra by DP World is designed to handle 2.19 million twenty-foot equivalent units annually, with a 2027 completion target, as EconoTimes previously reported.
DPA's board approved a draft feasibility report for the multipurpose terminal in February 2021. Its 2024–25 administrative report described the project as being at the tendering stage.
