Ahmedabad, Jun 7 (IANS): Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Limited (APSEZ) said on Friday that it has received the letter of intent (LoI) for the operation and maintenance of the container facility at the Netaji Subhas Dock at the Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port in Kolkata for five years.

With this, India’s largest port developer-cum-operator has established its presence at the largest container handling facility on the eastern coast.

“The contract for container handling facilities at the Netaji Subhas Dock to APSEZ underlines our commitment to develop ports and logistics infrastructure across the country, and the potential we see in West Bengal,” said Ashwani Gupta, whole-time Director and CEO, APSEZ.

“We will bring our experience of over two decades of efficiently managing various container terminals within India and outside, benefiting customers and the people of the state,” Gupta added.

APSEZ has won the five-year contract through a competitive bidding process, which mandates the successful bidder to deploy cargo handling equipment within seven months from the letter of acceptance (LoA) date.

Netaji Subhas Dock is the largest container terminal on the eastern coast which handled around 0.63 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in FY 2023-24.

The presence of APSEZ at the dock is likely to improve connectivity between the terminal and its container ports, particularly with the transshipment hubs at Vizhinjam and Colombo that are targeted for commissioning during the year.

Adani Ports has seven strategically located ports and terminals on the western coast and eight ports and terminals on the eastern coast, representing 27 per cent of the country's total port volumes.