Kandla Port

Kandla, officially Deendayal Port Trust is a seaport in Kutch District of Gujarat state in Western India, near the city of Gandhidham. Located on the Gulf of Kutch, it is one of major ports on the west coast. Kandla was constructed in the 1950s as the chief seaport serving Western India, due to the partition of India leaving the port of Karachi in Pakistan.
The Port of Kandla is located on the Gulf of Kutch on the northwestern coast of India, some 256 nautical miles southeast of the Port of Karachi in Pakistan and over 430 nautical miles north-northwest of the Port of Mumbai. It is the largest port of India by volume of cargo handled. Kandla Port Trust, India’s busiest major port in recent years, is gearing to add substantial cargo handling capacity with private sector participation. The west coast port handled 7,223 crore (72,225 million) tonnes of cargo in 2008-09, over 11% more than the 6,492 crore (64,920 million) tonnes handled in 2007-08.
Even as much of this growth has come from handling of crude oil imports, mainly for Essar Oil’s Vadinar refinery in Gujarat, the port is also taking measures to boost non-POL cargo. Last fiscal, POL traffic accounted for 63 per cent of the total cargo handled at Kandla Port, as against 59% in 2007-08.
The port will soon begin selecting developers for four clean cargo berths that together aim to handle 8 million tonnes of cargo. The four berths will be supported by a 14 m draft capable of handling 75,000 dwt vessels. The port has already received encouraging response from prospective bidders, for the project that is estimated to cost nearly ₹500 crore.
In 2015-16 the port handled 10.6 crore (106 million) tonnes of cargo.Kandla Port was renamed as Deendayal Port Trust under the India port act of 1908.