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Port of call

CVR-Group owned Krishnapatnam port is looking to cash in on coal imports as SC scraps coal block allocations

RA Chandroo

Nowhere is the proverbial statement ‘one man’s meat is another man’s poison’ more fitting than in the implementation of the Supreme Court’s recent order for the cancellation of over 200 captive coal blocks. For port players along India’s extended coastlines, the switch to coal imports has come as a windfall, with the Krishnapatnam Port featured here projecting a 50% spurt in growth in the current fiscal. Owned by the CVR group, the Andhra Pradesh-based 6,500-acre port expects sales to touch ₹1,800 crore this fiscal, up from ₹1,200 crore in FY13. With several power players setting up shop in and around the port town, taking capacity up to 14,000 MW, a minimum 30% surge in imports is expected in the near future. With a fortnightly container service to Myanmar launched recently, Krishnapatnam port seems to be waiting for its ship to come in.