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ShareMUMBAI: The Shapoorji Pallonji group is eyeing a presence in the ports sector around the western coast.
The group led by Pallonji Mistry, said to be among the wealthiest individuals in the country, is mulling a bid to develop one of the ports along the Maharashtra coast, which are slated for privatisation.
Industry sources say the group will make a proposal to Maharashtra Maritime Board in the coming fortnight.
The ports earmarked by the board for further development around the Ratnagiri coastline are Anjanvel, Ganeshgure and Jaigad. The board wants to "double up" the capacity of the ports with private sector investment.
The maritime board had recently placed the ports at Alewadi in Thane district and Vijaydurg and Redi ports in Sindhudurg district for development. All the six ports would be operational for eight months in a year.
Industry sources close to the Shapoorji Pallonji group confirm that it is keen to enter the port sector and is looking at five ports along the Maharashtra-Goa coastline.
According to them, it was initially looking at setting up facilities to handle bulk cargo like iron ore, coal and bauxite and later moving into containers as well.
This could mean the group is more interested in the Jaigad port, compared to the others. However, this could not be ascertained.
By 2010, the Jaigad port would be able to handle cargo up to 8.5 million tonnes per annum, though sources say it can be tweaked further.
If the move to acquire a port fructifies, the Shapoorji Pallonji group which is perceived more as a construction conglomerate currently, will see a lot of its future investments earmarked towards the maritime industry. The group turnover is about Rs 2,000 crore.
It is learnt that Pallonji Mistry's son Cyrus is piloting the maritime ventures and the company has already put in place the required management bandwidth for the port ventures.
Only recently, the group signed a joint venture with Shipping Corporation of India for acquiring and plying chemical tankers through its only listed entity, the Forbes group. A foray into developing and managing ports also makes sense as Afcons Infrastructure Ltd, a Rs 700-crore group company, is eyeing large domestic port projects. Sources further say that the Shapoorji Pallonji group is looking to diversify its activities and has some bandwidth in pulling off critical infrastructure projects such as building ports.
Notably, a number of big corporates, including Reliance, L&T, Tatas and Adanis, are in the fray to build and own ports. The move by Reliance Industries to acquire Vijay Papa Rao's stake in Rewas, which will be far bigger in scale than the ports earmarked by Maharashtra Maritime Board will mean that competition is hotting up along the coastline. Mundhra and Rewas ports will give the much needed competition to JNPT and other ports in the vicinity.
Sources, though, say that given the rapid increase in trade and commerce, any number of new ports can thrive, if managed well.
