ASIA

New private investor for Pipavav

14 years ago

There have been reports this week that The International Finance Corporation (IFC) is considering a loan which would fund over half of Gujarat Pipavav Port Ltd’s (GPPL) new expansion project.

According to the Business Standard, the IFC is considering a US$170m loan to part fund the proposed US$303m expansion project.

APM Terminals Pipavav, which is registered as Gujarat Pipavav Port Ltd (GPPL), recently raised fresh funds from the market for the expansion amounting to Rs350 crore (US$70m). APMT contributed Rs150 crore (US$30m) to this amount.

Bhuvana Ramalingam, APM Terminals Pipavav, said to Port Strategy: “Port Pipavav has also recently got environment approvals from the Ministry of Environment and Forests for port expansion. The funds raised from the markets is being used for repaying some of our debts and for expansion projects. Funds from IFC will also be utilised for expansion.”

The aim is to complete the expansion project in two phases with phase one increasing GPPL’s capacity up to 1.5m from 0.85m teu. Bulk handling will also be doubled.

The project will include building a new liquid cargo berth, expansion of the present container berth and bulk berths. There will also be dredging works to accommodate larger vessels.

Equipment will be upgraded with new three post Panamax cranes and ten RTGs. The container yard is due to be expanded to 1.5m teu and there will be new storage yards for bulk cargo.

There will also be a new internal road, associated gateways, parking for trucks and new rail sidings to enable handling the extra volumes.

Phase one of the development needs to run smoothly though, a statement on the IFC’s website says it will only consider finance help for phase two after successful completion of the first stage.