A company owned by the Adani Group has applied for a licence to expand its power distribution operations into additional areas of Mumbai, including JNPT, the nation's largest container port. Adani Electricity Navi Mumbai (AENM) announced in an advertisement that it and its publicly traded parent company Adani Transmission have applied to the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) for a distribution licence in some areas of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. The company is attempting to obtain a licence to distribute electricity in Mulund and Bhandup, two suburbs of Mumbai that are solely served by the state-owned Mahadiscom, as well as Thane district, Navi Mumbai, Panvel, Kharghar, Taloja, and Uran. The group, whose holdings include the Adani Ports company, is also competing to provide power to JNPT, the largest container port in the nation, which is situated close to Navi Mumbai. Since the Electricity Act was changed to make it more open, this application is the first of its kind made by any player. The MERC has accepted the application, and as a result, the public notice has been published. By the end of the first five years after receiving a licence, the Adani group will reportedly be serving over 5 lakh customers. According to the public notice, Pranav Adani and the nominees for the listed company own only a small portion of AENM, with Adani Transmission owning over 99 percent of the equity. Directors of AENM include power industry veterans Anil Kumar Sardana, Rohit Soni, and Mehul Rupera. Adani Electricity, which competes with Tata Power in the market, has been distributing electricity in Mumbai for more than four years.The company, which entered the competition after spending over Rs 180 billion to purchase the struggling Reliance Energy from the Anil Ambani Group, has not been able to grow its market share in the regions it serves. See also: Adani Electricity to spend Rs 5 bn on Mumbai smart meteringPower transmission arm integrated by Adani Transmission