On July 18, one of India's largest private port companies Essar Ports Ltd., part of the Essar Group announced that it has recently commissioned the 12 million mt per year capacity expansion at its Vadinar terminal. The total cost of the expansion is INR10.6 billion ($239 million). With the commissioning of this additional 12 million mt per year the total handling capacity of Vadinar Port increased to 58 million mt per year.
Commissioning of this project is in line with the company's expansion plans at Salaya, Paradip and Hazira, doubling the capacity to 158 million mt per year by 2013. The total capital expenditure planned by the company is INR93 billion ($2 billion) and the company already spent INR63 billion ($1.4 billion) of this amount.
Essar Ports currently have two ports in operation and three under construction. The cargo handling capacity at Hazira is 30 million mt per year, which will be ramped up to 50 million mt per year. Essar Ports is also developing a 16 million mt per year iron ore berth and 14 million mt per year coal terminals at Paradip.