103 MoUs in ship-building,ports signed

Among the MoUs with the highest investment proposals were four with the Adani Group worth a total of Rs 12,500 crore. Two of these were towards expansion of the Mundra Port and Special Economic Zone at Mundra.

GVK Group signed an MoU worth Rs 7,000 crore to set up new facilities at Jamnagar,while Essar signed a Rs 4,057 crore deal to expand its jetty at Hazira.

Sterling Port Limited signed a Rs 5,400-crore deal to develop SEZ-linked facilities at Bharuch in phases. Shapoorji Paloonji Co. Ltd signed a Rs 500-crore MoU to build a greenfield port at Chhara in Junagadh.

Twenty-four MoUs with investment proposals of less than Rs 100 crore each were also signed,which included ship-building and ship-repairing units and adding facilities at existing ports in Gujarat.

Two government sector MoUs were also signed — one with Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (GSPC) LNG Ltd worth Rs 3,500 crore to develop port facilities along the coast,and the second,a Rs 1,500-crore MoU with GIDC to develop utilities at various locations.

At present,GMB operates 41 non-major ports,which handle four-fifths of all cargo handled by non-major ports in India. In total,the state’s ports handle a third of all the country’s cargo at 206 million tonnes.