Coal news and updates

Ennore Port Ltd, the entity that runs the Union government-owned port at Ennore in Tamil Nadu, will set up a coal loading facility, its third, for state-owned power utility Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation Ltd (TANGEDCO) to tap rising demand for the commodity used for generating electricity.

The proposal to construct a new coal handling berth for TANGEDCO with an investment of Rs250 crore was cleared by the port’s board on Friday, two persons briefed on the decision said. The new facility will have a capacity to load 4 million tonnes of coal a year.

“We will now float a tender to select a construction contractor for the project,” one of them, a board member, said. He did not want to be named.

A spokesman for Ennore Port declined to comment on the board decision.

Ennore Port has built two coal berths with a combined capacity of 12 million tonnes (mt) a year that are run by TANGEDCO, the port’s biggest customer accounting for about 40% of its revenues. To meet the rising coal requirements of the power utility, the port had planned to build a third berth with its own investment.

Ennore clocked the highest growth rate among the 12 ports owned by the Union government in the six months ended September. The harbour posted a volume growth of 58.5% mainly due to higher coal loadings. Between April and September, Ennore loaded 10.4 mt of coal compared with 6.3 mt handled a year earlier. The port was also helped by a court-imposed ban on handing dusty cargo such as coal at nearby Chennai port since October 2011.

The board also short-listed all the 11 groups that have applied for a tender to construct a container loading facility at the port with an investment of Rs1,270 crore.

The harbour plans to sell tax-free bonds by January to raise Rs500 crore through a public issue to help pay for improving its infrastructure.

 

Source: live mint