Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Wednesday alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party government in Gujarat was helping the Adani Group secure a monopoly over the state’s port sector.

Ramesh said the Gujarat government grants private ports a 30-year concession period on a build-own-operate-transfer, or BOOT, basis. When the concession period lapses, the port’s ownership is transferred to the state government.

“On the basis of this model, Adani Ports currently has control over Mundra, Hazira, and Dahej ports,” Ramesh said. “Before the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections, Adani Ports requested the Gujarat Maritime Board to extend this concession period by another 45 years to 75 years in total.”

This was much beyond the maximum permissible period of 50 years, he claimed.

The state government rejected the allegations as unverified and baseless, reported PTI.

Ramesh said that the Gujarat Maritime Board recommended that the state government protect its revenue interests after the end of the 30-year concession by inviting bids from other potential operators and companies, or renegotiating financial terms with Adani.

The Congress alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi forced a change in the maritime board’s decision as he did not want competition. He claimed that the maritime board’s decision was “revised to recommend the extension of the concession period for Adani, without inviting new bids or renegotiating the terms”.

Ramesh said that there were two consequences of this “daylight robbery”.

He said in a social media post: “Adani Ports will secure a monopoly on Gujarat’s port sector, harming market competition, and driving up prices for the common man. Adani Ports will see its valuation rise and borrowing costs fall.”

Ramesh also contended that the Gujarat government would lose crores of rupees in revenues by failing to open up the process to a renegotiation or competitive bidding.

The state government, however, said that there was no maximum permissible period of 50 years for providing concession to port operators, as claimed by Ramesh.

“Gujarat has been a leader in the maritime sector and currently handles the largest number of cargoes in the country,” the government said, according to PTI. “Based on the BOOT Policy 1997, Gujarat Maritime Board has entered into various concession agreements with an initial period of 30 years and with a provision for further extension afterwards for the development of ports through private and joint sector mode.”

These ports include Pipavav, Mundra, Hazira, Dahej, Chhara and Jafarabad.

“There have been several requests from port operators to extend the term of concession agreements, including proposals from PLL (Dahej) in 2012 and 2013, from APM Terminals (Pipavav) between 2011 and 2021 and from APSEZ Mundra in 2015 and 2021,” the Gujarat government said.

“In contrast to what Ramesh had claimed, the proposed policy will apply equally to all port operators instead of benefiting one port operator and all existing port operators can benefit from the policy, so no question of monopoly arises,” the government said, adding that the proposed policy was still under consideration.