Kamarajar Port (formerly known as Ennore Port), located on the Coromandel Coast about 24 km north of Chennai Port, Chennai, is the 12th Major Port of India. The port was declared as a major port under the Indian Ports Act, 1908 in March 1999 and incorporated as Ennore Port Limited under the Companies Act, 1956 in October 1999. Ennore Port, designed as Asia's energy port and envisaged being a satellite port to decongest and improve the environmental quality at the bustling Chennai Port. Ennore Port was originally conceived primarily to handle thermal coal to meet the requirement of Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) and was endowed with large chunks of land (about 2,000 acres). The scope was expanded taking into account subsequent developments such as the plan of Government of Tamil Nadu to set up a 1,880 MW LNG power project in association with a private consortium, a large petrochemical park and a naphtha cracker plant. Ennore Port designed as a world-class port, with two breakwaters—one in the north measuring 3,080 m and the other in the south measuring 1,070 m it has the capacity to develop 20 berths for handling a variety of bulk, liquid, automobile and container cargo. The port is an artificial port with features including all-weather, round-the-clock operations, a large back-up land, eco-friendly environment, state-of-the-art navigational facilities, well-organized logistics systems and transport interface
The first phase of the port main construction work included two berths for handling coal vessels up to 65,000/70000 DWT, dredging for the approach channel and harbour basin, onshore civil works, navigational aids, and two breakwaters. Ennore Port was commissioned by the then Prime Minister of India on 1 February 2001. Commercial operations commenced with Handymax geared vessels for unloading of thermal coal on 22 June 2001.
