Indian Gas Exchange (IGX), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Indian Energy Exchange (IEX), hopes to launch natural gas trading on its platform beginning next month. Initially, the company has identified Dahej, Hazira and Kakinada as delivery points and will subsequently include Dhabol, Kochi, Ennore and Mundra terminals.

The ground-breaking ceremony has been done for the LNG import facility at Karaikal port. The facility is expected to commence commercial operations by the fourth quarter of 2021. It is being built on a 12-hectare site with an initial capacity of 1 MTPA, which can be increased to 6 MTPA in a phased manner.

Bagged contract for the construction of three boat terminals for Kochi Water Metro Project at Vyttila, Eroor and Kakkanad. The contract is awarded to Marymatha construction company.

The airport is considering monorail to ferry passengers between airport terminals at Delhi airport. The airport has already conducted the feasibility study and cost estimation for undertaking such a project.

The Government of India has decided to develop two Smart Industrial Port Cities one at East Coast (Paradip Port) and another at West Coast (Deen Dayal Port, Kandla).

The unit of Danish transport giant AP Moller Maersk Group, is to open India’s first environment approved inland container depot (ICD) for handling chemicals in Pune. The ICD can handle 60,000 containers a year. It has 100,000 sq ft of warehouse space, half bonded and half non-bonded, besides 50,000 sq ft of yard space to store containers.

Visakhapatnam Port Trust had implemented the upgradation of existing iron ore handling facility at Outer Harbour of Vizag Port. The project was undertaken at a cost Rs 580 Crore. The project comprises modernising and upgrading the 40 year old iron ore handling facility so that it can handle larger vessels of 2 lakh DWT with loading rate of 8000 MT/hour.

The Government regularly monitors projects that aim to modernize and upgrade the port infrastructure in the country. The projects include modernization and construction of new berths and terminals, installation of state of the art equipment, mechanization of cargo handling systems etc.

The pace of infrastructure development in the country is going to accelerate in years to come. Stemming from the Pre-engineered buildings industry, what is taking shape is the application of pre-engineered construction to new Heavy Engineering and larger Infrastructure projects which is the next in line for development in the country.