The Hindu Business Line : CWPRS to conduct study at Paradip port

The Pune-based Central Water and Power Research Station (CWPRS) has been asked to conduct a study to ascertain if the Paradip port would be affected by the proposed minor port of Korean steel major Pohang Steel Company (POSCO).

The Orissa Government has entrusted CWPRS to conduct the study, the Chairman of the Paradip Port Trust Chairman, Mr K. Raghuramaiah, said at a press conference here on Sunday. The report is expected in a few months' time.

He said the study, aimed at finding the environmental and technical impact of the proposed port, was necessary since Paradip was experiencing erosion on the northern side and accretion on the southern side.

While signing the memorandum of understanding with the Orissa Government to set up the 12-million-tonnes-per-annum-capacity steel plant in Jagatsinghpur, POSCO had announced its plan to construct a small port for its captive use at Jatadhari, seven km south of Paradip.

The Union Shipping Ministry, which manages the Paradip port, had recently asked the Orissa Government to get the study conducted before POSCO was allowed to go ahead with the construction of the proposed port.

Mr Raghuramaiah, however, said that the Paradip port did not see any danger from the proposed port at Dhamra in Bhadrak district. Dhamra port will not come in the way of Paradip port, he said.

As regards the expansion of the Paradip port, Mr Raghuramaiah said a project for deepening of the channel to handle bigger vessels has been planned to cater to the requirement of the new industries that are coming up in Orissa and neighbouring Jharkhand.

The port has already received requests from several industries for captive berthing facility, he said.

Besides, the port is planning for construction of a deep draught iron ore berth at an estimated Rs 328 crore to be taken up on build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis.

Initially, the project envisaged handling of iron ore only, but the scope of the project has been revised for importing coal along with export of iron ore.

A total of 10.27 million tonnes of iron ore was exported from the Paradip port during 2005-06, Mr Raghuramaiah informed.

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