Gangavaram Port Ltd, which operates the country's deepest draft port located in Visakhapatnam, expects to achieve financial closure for its INR 1,200 crore capacity expansion project by August end this year.

The company, owned by the DVS Raju Group (59%), private equity firm Warburg Pincus (30%) and the Andhra Pradesh Government (11%), will be raising INR 900 crore for the expansion project, the rest to be mobilized through internal accruals.

Mr Pranav Choudhary CFO said that "We will be raising the debt through a mix of borrowings from the Indian market and the external commercial borrowings route. We are not considering issue of bonds for this project.”

The expansion plan involves construction of four berths one exclusively for coal and three multi purpose berths to enhance its cargo handling capacity from the current 25 million tonnes to 45 million tonnes.

Last fiscal, the port handled about 14 million tonnes of cargo, with the target for the current fiscal being between 16 million tonnes and 17 million tonnes. It expects to finalize the global EPC tenders for construction of the berths in the next couple of months, with the construction time estimated at 24 months from the zero date.

Although immediately not on the anvil, the port will look at getting into container and wet cargo, including crude, handling services later.

(Sourced from Business Line)