Ennore Port

Ennore Port is located in Ennore, Chennai, India. Ennore Port was originally conceived as a satellite to Port of Chennai, primarily to handle thermal coal to meet the requirement of what is now the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO) and was endowed with large chunks of land (about 2,000 acres). The scope was expanded taking into account subsequent developments such as the plan of Government of Tamil Nadu to set up a 1,880 mW LNG power project in association with a private consortium, a large petrochemical park and a naphtha cracker plant.

Background
Ennore Port was commissioned by the then Prime Minister of India on February 1, 2001. The port was set up under the Companies Act, keeping it outside the scope of the Tariff Authority for Major Ports, the tariff regulator for 11 of the 12 ports owned by the Indian government. The port was declared as a major port under the Indian Ports Act, 1908 in March 1999 and incorporated as the Ennore Port Limited under the Companies Act, 1956 in October 1999. Commercial operations commenced with Handymax geared vessels for unloading of thermal coal on June 22, 2001. With the deployment of self-unloading and gearless vessels of 65,000/77,000 dead weight tonnage (DWT), full-fledged operations were started in December 2002.

Coal shipments
TANGEDCO consumes approximately 16 million tonnes of coal a year in its existing coal-fired power stations. Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd. and Eastern Coalfields Ltd. supply 13.5 Million tonnes per annum with the remainder "mainly" imported from Indonesia. The coal is transported by rail from the coal mines to the loading ports namely Haldia, Paradip and Vizag and discharged at Ennore Port and Tuticorin Port. At Ennore port coal is either transported to North Chennai Thermal Power Station via a conveyor system or loaded into rail wagons for carriage to the Mettur Thermal Power Station and Ennore Thermal Power Station.

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