The Hindu Business Line : Cargo handling target of major ports set at 465.7 mt

Revised estimates
The target for all major ports has been set at 465.7 mt envisaging 10 per cent growth.
For Kolkata, it has been set at 51.8 mt comprising 41.8 mt for Haldia and 10 mt for KDS.

Kolkata , May 15

For 2006-07, the Shipping Ministry has set cargo handling target for all major ports at 465.7 million tonnes (mt), thus envisaging around 10 per cent growth, compared with 10.34 per cent growth at 423.4 mt achieved in 2005-06.

The target for all other ports save Kolkata has been revised upwards vis-à-vis their actual performance in 2005-06. For Kolkata port, covering both Kolkata Dock System (KDS) and Haldia, it has been scaled down, marginally though.

Ports' target

Thus, the Ministry has set the target for Paradip at 40.8 mt compared with actual handling of 33.1 mt in 2005-06. The corresponding figures for other ports are: Visakhapatnam - 61.59 mt (55.8 mt), Chennai - 52.2 mt (47.21 mt), Ennore - 9.8 mt (9.2 mt), Tuticorin - 18.2 mt (17.14 mt), Kochi - 15.67 mt (13.9 mt ), New Mangalore - 37.2 mt (34.4 mt), Mormugao 35.3 mt (31.7 mt), Mumbai - 49 mt (44.2 mt), JNPT - 43.2 mt (37.7 mt) and Kandla - 50.8 (45.9 mt).

The target for Kolkata port has been set at 51.8 mt comprising 41.8 mt for Haldia and 10 mt for KDS. In 2005-06, Kolkata handled 53 mt — Haldia 42.2 mt and KDS 10.8 mt. The authorities of Kolkata port, however, had set a much lower target for 2006-07 at 45.5 mt — 37 mt at Haldia and 8.5 mt at KDS. The reason is Kolkata port is set to lose substantial crude traffic to Paradip.

Beleaguered by the Hooghly river's poor navigability which prevents large crude carriers from calling at either KDS or Haldia with full load, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) is setting up a single point mooring (SPM) at Paradip to handle large crude carriers with full load.

The bulk of the crude to be unloaded at SPM will be transported by a pipeline network to Haldia where IOC has a refinery. The 300-km long crude pipeline is due to be commissioned during the course of the year. Once the SPM starts operation and the imported crude starts flowing through the Paradip-Haldia crude pipeline for Haldia refinery, Haldia will stand to lose substantial volumes of crude traffic to Paradip.

Crude traffic

It now appears that the Ministry is not convinced that the drop in crude traffic at Kolkata will be as much as the port authorities had estimated. In 2005-06, Kolkata (including Haldia) handled about 16.5 mt of crude — 12.4 mt at Haldia and four mt at KDS.

The Ministry estimates that Kolkata will handle nothing less than 11.5 mt of crude in 2006-07 or a drop of five mt. The port authorities, however, had estimated a much bigger drop, around eight mt or so.

Paradip port on the other hand had estimated to handle about three mt of crude in 2006-07 but the Ministry feels the throughput will be higher at 4.5 mt. Right now the port does not handle any crude.