Capacity and Bottleneck Analysis

With the existing infrastructure of two breakwaters and the protected port basin of 220ha water spread and 15.5m depth, Ennore Port has a capacity to become a mega port with world class facilities to handle dry bulk/ liquid bulk/container cargoes. It has a potential to handle cars, LNG, and crude when demands arise in courses of time. Ennore Port should have the land and waterfront resources to meet such demands and build up capacity in stages at least for the next 50 years.

The foreseeable major bottlenecks which have a bearing on port capacity are:

• Shortage of backup lands. The present available lands of 836 ha with EPL

may be able to accommodate the developments up to the capacity of 42 million tonnes per annum to handle dry bulk & liquid bulk cargoes

(TNEB coal- 16 MTPA, Non-TNEB coal- 8 MTPA, Iron Ore– 15 MTPA, Marine Liquids 3 MTPA) and 3.0 million TEUS of containers per annum. Even to handle this capacity, EPL requires additional lands for a westward extension of the coal stack yard, the land corridor for Northern Port Access Road including buffer yards, a portside container yard, port related commercial activities etc.

• Need for a 8-lane Northern Port Access Road directly connecting Ennore Port with TPP road and then NH 5 for evacuation of containers, coal and other cargo items.

• Need for a new chord line connecting Puttur and Attipattu to support Iron ore movement from Bellary – Hospet mines to Ennore Port.

The above bottlenecks and the means to overcome them have been analysed in the subsequent paras 2.5 and 2.6.

2.5 Phased Land Use Plan

2.5.1 Land Availability

Ennore port presently owns 836 ha of land inside and outside the port boundary wall. The lands acquired from TNEB, TIDCO and some private landowners are located in Puzhudivakkam, Ennore and Kattupalli villages of Ponneri Taluk, Thiruvallur District. EPL has taken up with the Salt Department for transfer of 486 ha of Salt lands for port development and port related purposes. EPL has been following the land use plan prepared in 2003 for developmental and operational activities.

2.5.2 Requirements of Additional Lands

Commensurating with the award of BOT contracts for the development and operation of Marine liquid, Coal and Iron Ore terminals and the container terminal to follow, the lands have been allocated towards these developments. Even to meet these committed developments, additional land is required for the following purposes.

• Westward expansion of the coal stack yard and to construct the new west spinal road for evacuation of coal.

• Road corridor for the Northern Port Access Road with buffer yards to effectively serve the container terminal(s)

• Portside container yard with CFS facilities for the rail-borne ICD containers. Ennore Port has the potential to become a world class port. Judging from the traffic forecast of the Business Plan, Ennore Port should have sufficient land back-up to support development of port facilities to handle about 55 million tonnes of Dry bulk/ Liquid bulk cargo and 3.5 million TEUS of containers (see also section 3.3 below). According to the traffic forecast, this may be sufficient until the second half of the next decade. Thereafter, additional facilities must be developed. The long term development is discussed in more detail in section 3.3 below. One option thereby mentioned the extension of dock basin as shown in Figure 2.3. In that case, the 400m width of dock basin proposed in the Master Plan needs for a review. Good amount of land is required on the northern side for the extension of the Dock basin to accommodate future berths and the backup storage yards. Land is also required to support port related activities and utilities.

2.5.3 Summary of Additional Land Requirement

1. Land to the extent of 1,500m x 1,400m (210ha) north of the northern Port boundary wall to accommodate the future northward extension of the Dock basin with ship manoeuvring area, storage of containers & liquid cargo, LNG regassification plant and other port related activities.

2. Strip of land to the extent of 2,000m x 250m (50ha) on the western side for expansion of coal stack yard and aligning the West Spinal Road. It is desirable that EPL may acquire the balance available lands also in this region to augment the railway operations in the holding yard.

3. 75 ha of land for locating the port side container yard adjoining the Attipattu/ Nandiampakkam R.S.

containers by the side of it. 5 ha of land for siting another buffer yard by the side of the existing access road leading to the port main gate. Total land requirement for these purposes shall be 225ha.

5. Salt Department land of 486 ha for which action has been initiated by EPL for transfer.

The above locations are marked in the updated land use plan at in Figure 2.3. Total requirement of additional lands mentioned above works out to 1,046 ha or approximately 1,050 ha including areas for environmental upgrading and tree plantation.

2.5.4 Strategy

EPL should take action on priority to acquire about 1,050 ha of land in the vicinity of Ennore Port before land becomes scarce in the region and to make sure that Ennore Port’s growth is not affected for want of lands. The 1,050 ha will however not be sufficient to cater for the long term development and EPL must initiate further action to identify their requirements and procure the resulting land.