As per the master plan, Kattupalli Port has the permission for adding five berths with a total quay (berth) length of 1,900 metres.
Of these, three berths have been developed already and are operational with Berths 1 and 2 used for container handling, project cargo and roll-on, roll-off (Ro-Ro) cargo. Berth 3 is a multipurpose berth used for handling break bulk/ general cargo and non-hazardous liquid cargo.
Currently, Kattupalli Port handles containers from two berths with quay length of 710 meters, 6 quay cranes, 15 rubber-tyred gantry cranes, 5,120 ground slots with the capacity to handle 1.2 million teus a year.
In June 2018, APSEZ acquired Kattupalli Port from Larsen & Toubro for Rs 1,950 crore after India’s biggest engineering and construction firm demerged the shipyard and the captive port (later allowed to handle commercial cargo per the port policy of Tamil Nadu government) to facilitate the sale.
Marine Infrastructure Developer Pvt Ltd (MIDPL), 97 percent owned by Adani Kattupalli Port Pvt Ltd, a unit of APSEZ, proposes to develop the remaining approved two berths (berth no 4 and berth no 5), converting the berth no 3 into container berth, craft berths, port craft facilities and associated backup yard facilities, along with dredging port areas from 16 metres to 16.7 metres and navigational channel from 16 metres to 17.5 metres, to tap the huge potential for container, liquid, and bulk business.
The planned expansion, according to APSEZ, will have flexibility to accommodate all berths (existing as well as proposed) as multipurpose by maintaining the same capacity of 24.65 million tonnes (mt) approved previously.
