Chennai, Mar 27 (IANS): The Chennai Port Trust on Friday acquired about 67 per cent stake held by the Central government in the country's first corporate port Kamarajar Port Ltd (KPL) for Rs 2,383 crore, said a top official of Chennai Port.

The KPL was promoted by the Central government holding about 67 per cent stake and Chennai Port holding the balance about 33 per cent.

"The share transfer agreement has been signed and the sale price has been paid today (Friday). However both the ports will function as separate entities while deriving benefits of synergies in terms of investments and operations," P.Raveendran, Chairman, Chennai Port told IANS.

Raveendran said with mergers happening the port sector, the acquisition of Kamarajar Port will enable both ports to face the market challenges.

He said, the KPL was originally conceived as a satellite port of Chennai Port as expansion was restricted at the latter.

Raveendran said future expansion investments will happen at KPL based on business and market situation.

He said Chennai Port will continue to focus on clean cargo like container, cars, liquid cargo, cruise and passenger traffic and on the utilisation of existing capacity to the maximum possible extent.

On the other hand, KPL will plan and create additional capacity for bulk and all other types of cargo which will result in avoiding duplication of capacity creation.

According to him, both the ports can exchange expertise and operational resources.

Queried about the car companies that are customers of KPL, Raveendran said the customers will not be disturbed and there will be no cartelization of rates.

In terms of capacity, Chennai Port has a capacity to handle 100 million tons of cargo while KPL has 67 million tons.