India’s JSW Infra wins $495 million order to develop port in Karnataka state

BENGALURU (Reuters) -JSW Infrastructure, India’s No.2 commercial port operator, said on Thursday it won an order worth 41.19 billion rupees ($495 million) to develop a port in the southern state of Karnataka.

The port at Keni will have an initial capacity of 30 million tonnes per annum (MTPA), the JSW Group company said.

JSW Infrastructure currently operates nine state port concessions on the west and east coasts of India with an overall capacity of 158.4 MTPA, which it aims to double by 2030.

The Keni port will be equipped to handle cape-size vessels — bulk carriers that are largely used for the transport of coal, ores, and other commodity raw materials.

The contract is JSW Infrastructure’s first major one since it debuted on the stock market on Oct. 3.

Since then, the stock has surged over 70%, boosted in part by the company reporting a bigger quarterly profit due to increased cargo volumes. ($1 = 83.2082 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Varun Vyas in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D’Souza)