Ennore Port is in ‘serious talks' with the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) for setting up a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal at Ennore, Chennai, at an investment of Rs.4,300 crore, Chairman and Managing Director S. Velumani said here on Tuesday.
The IOC board has already approved an investment of Rs.4,300 crore for the development of the terminal.
Briefing reporters here, Mr. Velumani said, “The terminal will have berth, re-gasification and storage facilities. The entire investment will be met by IOC and Ennore Port would facilitate the development of the terminal.''
Mr. Velumani said IOC was now engaged in getting all clearances, including environmental clearance, and the discussion on the commercial nitty-gritty of the endeavour was going on.
Meanwhile, Ennore Port on Tuesday signed a preliminary agreement with the Ministry of Shipping to increase its target of cargo handling capacity to 61.5 million tonnes by 2014-15 from the current 15 million tonnes through PPP mode. The investment in construction of cargo handling would be by private companies and Ennore Port would be the facilitator.
Ennore Port would take up four major projects — development of liquid terminal at a cost of Rs. 250 crore, common use coal terminal at an investment of Rs.380 crore and iron ore export terminal for which the investment would be made in phases.
An investment of Rs.360 crore would be made in the first phase and in the second phase when the traffic demand for iron ore exports picked up, he added. The company would build a container terminal with a capacity of 1.5 million tonnes at an investment of Rs.1,400 crore.
