Deendayal Port wins Smart Port of the Year award and a new cargo terminal deal

what happened

The Deendayal Port Authority (DPA) in Kandla has been named Smart Port of the Year at the Smart Logistics Awards 2026, a ceremony hosted by Maritime Gateway in Rajkot. According to the report from Moody's, the honour reflects efforts to make the port more efficient and ready for future demands. Chairman Sushil Kumar Singh thanked everyone involved, from port users and officers to trade unions.

On October 21, DPA issued a Letter of Award to Essar Ports Limited to build a multipurpose cargo terminal at Tuna Tekra, with an estimated cost of Rs 2,276.06 crore. The project will run as a 30-year build-operate-transfer concession under a public-private partnership. Essar won the global bidding process with the highest offer and will pay DPA a royalty of Rs 61 per tonne.

The terminal is designed to handle 18.33 million tonnes a year through four 300-metre berths. It can take Cape-size vessels up to 170,000 DWT with drafts of up to 18 metres. Operations are expected to start in 2031. Of the total cost, Rs 1,552.57 crore comes from the concessionaire and Rs 723.49 crore from DPA.

why it matters

For markets, this is a long-horizon infrastructure story rather than a price driver. Added cargo capacity at Kandla supports domestic and export-import trade in western India, but the start date is 2031, so near-term effects on commodities or currencies are limited.

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