Posted on November 3, 2025
Abu Dhabi’s NMDC Dredging & Marine “wants to fund the project and also undertake the Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) contract comprising civil works, dredging, and reclamation for the port, worth some ₹4,000 crore”.
MUMBAI: NMDC Dredging & Marine, a unit of Abu Dhabi government- backed NMDC Group P.J.S.C., is weighing a plan to pick up equity in Subarnarekha Port Pvt Ltd as the promoters led by Tata Steel Ltd look to start building the port in Odisha after years of delay.
“We are exploring the possibility of taking an equity stake in Subarnarekha Port… we are trying to pull it (the port project) forward,” Niels de Bruijn, NMDC Dredging & Marine CEO told ETInfra on Thursday at the India Maritime Week held in Mumbai, adding that his company was “very interested” in the new port.
Chennai-based Creative Port Development Pvt Ltd was awarded a 30- year concession in January 2008 by the Odisha government to build a 31 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) capacity all-weather, deep-water port adjacent to the mouth of Subarnarekha River near Chaumukh village at Baliapal Block in the state’s Balasore district. The concession agreement can be extended by 20 years per mutual agreement.
But, more than 17 years after the port project was awarded, it is yet to be constructed, making it the most delayed Indian port project after a concession agreement was signed. The Odisha government has condoned the long delay, which typically would have been a cause for terminating the concession agreement.
“Subarnarekha Port project is in traction now,” Usha Padhee, Principal Secretary, Commerce and Transport Department, Odisha government, told ETInfra on October 27 in Mumbai.
In 2017, Tata Steel acquired a 51 per cent stake in Subarnarekha Port Pvt Ltd from Creative Port Development, to cater to the needs of its 10-mt capacity steel mill at Jamshedpur.
The new port is designed to handle coal (including coke), flux (limestone, dolomite), mineral ore, gypsum, cement clinker, fertiliser, iron and steel, thermal coal, iron ore and pellets, and other non-hazardous dry and break-bulk cargo.
According to the concession agreement signed originally, the port would have an initial capacity of 10 mt, which can be scaled up to 40 mt in 10 years. The port developer is mandated to share 5 per cent of its annual gross revenue with the Odisha government from the first to fifth year, 8 per cent from the sixth to 10th year, 10 per cent from the 11th to 15th year, and 12 per cent for the remaining 15 years.
Delays marred the project
The environmental and coastal regulation zone clearance granted to the port project in March 2012 lapsed on March 20, 2024. From 2012 to 2016, the project faced delays and could not progress as planned due to legal complications.
In 2024, the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) attached to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change recommended grant of fresh Terms of Reference for processing green clearance to the project, which is currently in the final stages.
According to a port industry source with knowledge of the matter, NMDC Dredging & Marine “wants to fund the project and also undertake the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract comprising civil works, dredging and reclamation worth some ₹4,000 crore for the new port”.
“It will be a fully funded EPC,” the source said.
The planned port has a 34.6 km long navigational channel and deepening the waters to 18 metres to dock Capesize ships would require dredging of some 94,400,000 cubic metres, entailing huge costs. The port would also require annual maintenance dredging to the tune of ₹300–400 crore.
It also requires two rubble mound breakwaters: the eastern breakwater of 2,784 metres length and western breakwater of 3,296 metres length, along with reclamation works of some 14,000,000 cubic metres for constructing four berths with a total quay (berth) length of 1,060 metres and a fully/semi-mechanised bulk material handling system with a backup stackyard area of 4.65 lakh sq metres with a stacking capacity of some 2.9 million tonnes of cargo.
“Given all these, Subarnarekha Port will cost nothing less than ₹12,000– 13,000 crore” , the port industry source said.
Currently, Tata Steel is using Paradip, Dhamra, and Kolkata/Haldia for its export-import needs.
“Now, the main problem is the project is stuck because Tata Steel has estimated the total project cost at around ₹12,000-13,000 crore, which is a huge cost for this type of project because of dredging the long navigational channel, breakwater construction and reclamation, with each package costing some ₹2,000 crore,” the industry source said.
Subarnarekha Port is not dependent on the cargo needs of the hinterland; it is a port designed to cater to the captive needs of Tata Steel. But, with the cargo that the planned port is expected to cater to, its viability is seen as a “touch and go.”
Hence, Tata Steel, the lead promoter, is understood to be exploring ways to reduce the capex required for the new port, including reducing the depth of the navigational channel to 14.5 metres from the previously planned 18 metres aimed at accommodating 1,80,000-tonne capacity Capesize ships.
Besides, Creative Port Development is said to be facing challenges in contributing its share of the equity component.
At a debt-equity ratio of 70:30, the project equity is worth some ₹3,000– 4,000 crore, and Creative Port Development has to chip in with ₹1,500 crore as its 49 per cent equity share.
The presence of NMDC Dredging & Marine will help the project take off, the industry source mentioned earlier added.
