Two states, one green ambition — and the foundation stone is now in the ground. Union Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal addressed the Shilanyas (foundation-laying) ceremony of a 150 tonne-per-day e-Methanol Plant at Deendayal Port, Kandla, Gujarat, on Saturday, 26 September 2026, calling the initiative a landmark 'collab for India's green future' anchored in an Assam-Gujarat partnership.

What is being built at Kandla — and why it matters

The plant, rated at 150 tonnes per day, will produce e-methanol — a clean synthetic fuel manufactured using green hydrogen and captured carbon dioxide. Unlike fossil-derived methanol, e-methanol carries a near-zero lifecycle emission footprint, making it a front-runner candidate for decarbonising heavy industry and, crucially, international shipping. Deendayal Port is one of India's largest public ports by cargo volume, handling bulk and liquid cargo that feeds sectors from fertilisers to petroleum — which is exactly why locating an e-methanol facility here sends a signal beyond just Gujarat.

Shipping's hard-to-abate emissions have pushed the International Maritime Organization to tighten fuel standards through this decade. Indian ports, under pressure to stay competitive on global trade lanes, are racing to offer green-fuel bunkering. A domestic production node at Kandla means the fuel can be consumed where it is made.

The Assam-Gujarat green corridor taking shape

Minister Sonowal, himself a son of Assam, framed the project explicitly as an inter-state collaboration. The pairing is not accidental: Assam sits atop substantial biomass and feedstock resources that can feed green-hydrogen or methanol supply chains, while Gujarat's coastline and port infrastructure provide the industrial scale and export gateway. Together, the two states sketch the rough outline of a feedstock-to-fuel-to-ship corridor that India's green maritime policy has long needed.

The project lands squarely inside the National Green Hydrogen Mission, launched in 2023, which set out to make India a global hub for green hydrogen and its derivatives — ammonia, methanol, and related chemicals — for both domestic use and export. E-methanol is one of the mission's priority derivative fuels.

Ports as nodes in India's net-zero playbook

The Kandla plant is part of a broader national pivot: positioning major ports not merely as cargo-handling infrastructure but as active production centres for clean fuels. India has committed to net-zero emissions by 2070, and the shipping and logistics sector — historically an afterthought in climate accounting — is now firmly inside that target perimeter. Each green-fuel facility commissioned at a major port tightens the link between maritime commerce and the energy transition, giving Indian exporters a compliance edge as the European Union and other markets ratchet up carbon-border scrutiny.

For Sonowal, the ceremony is also politically resonant: as former Chief Minister of Assam now steering national maritime policy, presiding over a project that puts his home state in partnership with India's most industrially powerful coastal state is a visible demonstration of the federal, cross-regional ambition he has staked his ministerial tenure on.

The question now is whether the construction timeline holds — and whether Kandla becomes the template that other major ports replicate before the decade is out.