The New Delhi based Sara International Limited has left the consortium constituted to set up an all weather private port at Gopalpur in Orissa’s Ganjam district.

Sara International Limited held 50% stake in Gopalpur Port Ltd the special purpose vehicle developing the port project, with rest 50% vested with Orissa Stevedores Ltd.

Sara International Limited, meanwhile, has been replaced by Jindal Steel & Power Limited in the SPV. In the restructured SPV, JSPL will hold 60% stake with Orissa Stevedores Ltd’s holding coming down to 40%

JSPL, which is setting up 6 million tonne steel plant near Angul, had earlier proposed to set up a captive port at Bahuda Muhan, also in Ganjam district, on its own at a capital cost of INR 1424.4 crore.

The operational cost of running the port would be to the tune of INR 152 crore per annum.

With this development, two of the original promoters of Gopalpur port have quit the consortium in last one and half years.

Earlier, Hong Kong-based Noble group had withdrawn from the SPV in May, 2010.

The Orissa government had awarded the job of developing the existing minor port at Gopalpur into an all weather non-major port to GPL, a consortium of three companies OSL, SIL and Noble group on BOOST basis in 2008.

(Sourced from BS)