Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) on Tuesday (16 February) completed the acquisition of Dighi Port in Maharashtra for Rs 705 crore and plans to invest over Rs 10,000 crore to develop it as an alternate gateway to Jawaharlal Nehru Port, reports LiveMint.
Jawaharlal Nehru Port of Mumbai is one of the 12 major ports in the country and also India’s largest container port.
The acquisition by APSEZ includes 100 per cent stake in Dighi Port Limited (DPL) located on the banks of the Rajpuri Creek in the Raigad District of Maharashtra.
Located at a distance of 42 nautical miles (NM) from Mumbai Port, Dighi port would enable APSEZ to service the highly industrial areas of the Mumbai and Pune regions.
Through the acquisition, APSEZ will be able to serve customers in Maharashtra, North Karnataka, West Telangana & Madhya Pradesh and increases its economic hinterland reach to over 90%;
“APSEZ plans to invest over Rs 10,000 crore to develop the port into a multi-cargo port with world-class infrastructure as well as investing in the development of rail and road evacuation infrastructure for seamless and efficient cargo movement,” the company said.
APSEZ has been pursuing an acquisitions-led model to complete its “string of pearls” ports strategy
“The successful acquisition of DPL adds another milestone in the Adani Port’s target of creating a string of ports to increase service coverage to the entire economic hinterland of India,” said Karan Adani, CEO and Whole Time Director of APSEZ.
He said that with growth focus, experience, and expertise in turning around acquisitions, they are confident of making DPL value accretive for all the stakeholders.