Adani Ports in pact to oversee L&T’s Kattupalli Port operations

Adani Ports, the country's biggest private sector port operator, has signed an agreement with Larsen & Toubro (L&T), to oversee operations of the latter's Kattupalli port, in Tamil Nadu.

In a filing with the stock exchanges, Adani Ports said it has signed a tentative agreement with L&T Shipbuilding Limited under which it would evaluate the latter's operations of the Kattupalli port for a one-month period during October 2015.

''Adani Ports has entered into a non-binding memorandum of understanding with L&T Shipbuilding (L&T) for evaluating the operations of the port at Kattupalli, Tamil Nadu, with effect from October 2015 for one month,'' Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) said in is BSE filing.

The definitive agreements would be entered into later, Adani Ports added.

Adani Ports shall be responsible for EBIDTA gains and losses arising from the port operation for this period, while the shipyard will continue to be managed and operated by L&T.

L&T has a controlling interest in its joint venture L&T Shipbuilding Limited (LTSB) with Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation Ltd (TIDCO).

In a separate filing, L&T said the shipyard will continue to be managed and operated by L&T Shipbuilding.

Reports, meanwhile, said the Gautam Adani-led Adani group would likely take over operational and management control of L&T Kattupalli International Container Terminal near Chennai to strengthen its presence on the east coast.

The Ahmedabad-based Adani group had, in June, entered into an agreement with the Kerala government for developing the Vizhinjam International Deepwater Seaport project, at an estimated cost of Rs4,089-crore.

Adani, which operates the country's busiest port at Mundra in Gujarat, has been given a four-year timeframe for commissioning the project.

''It is a strategic location being close to the international shipping route and has the potential to become the biggest trans-shipment hub in the region,''  group chairman Gautam Adani had then said.

At present, about one million TEUs of Indian cargo is trans-shipped through foreign ports such as Colombo.

Adani Ports also operates ports in Mundra, Hazira, Tuna-Tekra (Kandla) and Dahej in Gujarat, Dhamra in Odisha, besides operating coal handling facilities in Mormugao in Goa and Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.

It is also setting up a container terminal at Ennore in Tamil Nadu.