Adani Mundra offers 15-day ground rent waiver to stranded gulf-bound containers

Adani Mundra Port offered a concession to West Asia bound stranded cargo on Tuesday, Rajesh Sinha, Special Secretary, Ministry of Ports, Shipping, and Waterways said Wednesday. Addressing an Inter-Ministerial Briefing, he said the circular issued by Mundra Port offers 15 days free storage to West Asia bound export containers.

“Reefer plug-in charges have been waived by 80 percent. Lift-on, lift-off and transportation charges have also been waived,” he said while listing measures being taken by the non-major port to address concerns. Major ports come under the administrative control of the centre while non-major ones are governed by either states or the private sector.

It is estimated there are around 70,400 TEUs (20-foot equivalents) of containers stranded across the country. According to official estimates, roughly half of these are at Gujarat’s Adani Mundra and APM Terminals Pipavav.


Adani Port’s trade notice offering the waivers is for “Middle-East bound export laden containers which were lying inside the terminal from February 28, 2026 or those gated in till 7 AM on March 8, 2026.”

Sector watchers say APM Terminals Pipavav already offers a similar 15-day concession to transhipment containers as a routine offering. Major ports started offering concessions to stranded West Asia bound cargo from February-end in a bid to ease concerns of exporters.

Sharing an update on the West Asia situation, Sinha said there have been no adverse incidents related to Indian vessels or seafarers being reported in the last 24 hours. There are currently 540 sea farers stranded on 20 Indian-flagged vessels on the West of the Hormuz strait, he said.

Tensions in West Asia escalated after a joint Israel-US air strike killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, prompting retaliatory attacks by Iran that have brought ship movement in the Persian Gulf to a standstill.