According to GPPL managing director Sunil Tandon, "The restructuring exercise should help us retire the high-cost debt of UTI (Rs 15 crore) and the Industrial Investment Bank of India (Rs 10 crore) to begin with. We have already repaid Rs 40 crore debt to UTI."

The port, which has now been pegged its project cost at Rs 868 crore, has also undertaken the deployment of two high-tech six-post Panamax quay cranes and two more BM Titan cranes to enable the port handle bigger ships. At present, ships of only about 2000 TEUs (twenty feet equivalent units) are calling at Pipavav port.

During the current financial year, the port has already surpassed its cargo throughput target and handled a staggering 4.5 million tonnes, comprising approximately 2.5 MT handled by GPPL jetty and about 2 MT by L&T captive jetty for cement. For the forthcoming year, the management of GPPL has projected a cargo throughput target of 6.5 MT to 7 MT for the entire port, with over 60 per cent accounted by the GPPL's jetty.

On the road-rail connectivity to the port, the 11.6 km - 8 lane highway connecting Pipavav to the coastal highway, is now ready for inauguration while 85 per cent of the civil work on the 264 km railway line between the port city and Surendranagar has been completed.

The railway project cost pegged at Rs 304 crore is undertaken by a special purpose vehicle (SPV) of GPPL and the railways.