The Hindu Business Line : `We plan to near double throughput in five years'<br> — Mr K. Raghuramaiah, Chairman, Paradip Port Trust

Paradip Port Trust (PPT) is perhaps the country's only port trust headed by officers from the Indian Railways. Mr K. Raghuramaiah, who took over as the Chairman of PPT in October, belongs to the 1979 batch of the Indian Railway Traffic Service. The Deputy Chairman, Mr Subrat Tripathy, who acted as the Chairman for more than two and half years since April 2003, is also from IRTS (1988 batch). There may be reasons why this is so. The major challenge facing the port authorities is how to step up connectivity to the port, Mr Raghuramaiah told Business Line in an interview at his office, in Paradip recently. He also dwelt at length on various other issues facing the port. Excerpts:

You were in the Railways before joining Paradip Port Trust as Chairman. How do you like this change?

Interesting. The transition from rail to port is a logical one. The scale of operations in the port, however, is much larger, more varied and complex, and rail is just one part of it, though an important part. Frankly, I've had no adjustment problem.

What are your priorities?

In any port, traffic is most important; other things are secondary. We have set a target of 60 million tonnes (mt) of traffic by 2010-11. In 2004-05, Paradip port handled 30 mt and the estimates for the current fiscal suggest a throughput of 33 mt. Near-doubling of the throughput within five years is our plan.

How do you propose to achieve the target?

Liquid bulk traffic is set for a big jump within the next few months, when the single-point mooring is due for commissioning. In 2006-07 we hope to handle an estimated four to five million tonnes of liquid bulk, to go up to 10 mt in 2007-08.

Posco, the Korean steel giant, I presume, will need to use the facilities of Paradip port till its own port is ready for operation and we hope to handle large volumes of project cargo on this account. An estimated five mt of cargo, both imports of raw materials and exports of finished products, will be generated on account of several other steel plants that are coming up in the region.

Both the Tatas and Posco are going to have their own ports...

Even if we rule out the two steel giants, there will be no dearth of traffic. For several other units Paradip port will be the obvious choice for routing imports and exports.

At what stage is your deep draft berth?

We have decided to invite fresh bids as we have modified the scope of the project. Earlier, it was thought that the berth would handle only iron ore exports. But the future of a berth should not be allowed to depend only on single cargo whose throughput again is subject to fluctuations in the world market. Besides, the Union Government is yet to firm up its policy on iron ore exports.

The proposed modification, therefore, presupposes creating facilities for handling exports of iron ore as well as imports of coal, both coking and non-coking varieties. Hopefully, we will finalise the contract within six months. On completion, the berth should be able to handle 10 mt annually.

We are also considering container operations in a big way.

Doesn't PPT already handle containers?

Yes. We do handle limited number of boxes for National Aluminium Company. But this time we propose to do it in a more systematic way as several others have shown interest in this regard and the Orissa Government is organising a meeting with the trade. Depending on the response, we might even go for a full-fledged container terminal.

What about the proposed clean cargo berths?

We are going slow on our plans for clean cargo berths. In fact, our decision in this regard will depend to some extent on Posco. We still feel that Posco will need Paradip and we are prepared to offer the Korean steel giant two berths for exclusive use and the berths will be at the same place earlier identified as the location for the clean cargo berths.

What is this controversy over Posco's captive port? Is the Centre really opposed to it?

The Shipping Minister has made the position clear. The Union Government is not per se opposed to Posco's captive port. What it wants is that the decision in this regard should be finalised only after a thorough technical and scientific study by experts after taking into account various relevant aspects, including the shoreline management.

Why?

The reason is simple. Paradip port is already experiencing erosion on its northern side and accretion on the southern side. Our port is situated north of the proposed location for Posco port. There is an apprehension that the construction of the Posco port too might entail erosion on its northern side, thus threatening our port.

There is another issue. Indian Oil Corporation is going to have its own facilities at a place somewhere between our port and the proposed port of Posco, covering an area south of the southern guidewall. Also, there is a proposal for a petrochemical complex. So various critical issues have to be sorted out first.

The thermal coal for coastal shipment is the single largest item in your traffic basket and yet the throughput of this critical item has been showing a downward trend. Are you worried?

Yes and no. The throughput so far this year has not been up to the mark. In fact, the linkages have been systematically cut. This can be a matter of concern. But I'm not unduly worried. The present crisis is temporary and has been caused by the drop in thermal power generation in Tamil Nadu due to rise in hydel generation following good rains in the State.

But on a long-term basis, nobody can take away the thermal coal traffic from us because of the cost advantage. The per tonne cost of transporting Talcher coal to Ennore by the rail-cum-sea mode is at least Rs 200 cheaper vis-a-vis all rail mode.

There is another point. Tamil Nadu Electricity Board has acquired on long-term charter three vessels, Gem of Ennore, APJ Sridevi and Rani Padmini, all 65000-dwt vessels dedicated to carrying coal from Paradip to Ennore. These vessels cannot be allowed to idle. My concern is not thermal coal, but something else.

What is that?

My major concern is the poor level of connectivity to the port. What is the point in adding to the port capacity without proper connectivity? A large chunk of our future investments therefore will be on improving connectivity. We are participating in SPVs floated by Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd and National Highway Authority of India for improving rail and road connectivity to the port.

We are also working with the State Government in its efforts to upgrade the present Cuttack-Paradip road. The existing Cuttack-Paradip railway line has been doubled and the work on its electrification is in progress. But that is not enough.