The Hindu Business Line : Haldia Dock facing capacity crunch

Haldia Dock Complex (HDC), which is under Kolkata Port Trust, is facing capacity crunch. It handled a total of 15.54 million tonnes (mt) of traffic so far in the current fiscal (till 6 a.m. of Monday) compared with 15.23 mt in the same period of 2005-06, thus registering a two per cent growth.

"We don't think our traffic growth in the current year will be anywhere near what we achieved in 2005-06," said a spokesman for HDC pointing out that last year the growth was 16.75 per cent at a total throughput of 42.3 mt.

The Haldia berths - 12 inside the dock and three outside on the riverfront - are operating close to capacity. "At 90 per cent occupancy, our berths have virtually reached their saturation points and each berth is having one ship every day," the spokesman observed, making it clear that unless additional capacity was created, any significant jump in cargo throughput would not be possible.

2 multipurpose berths

Fortunately, the work on the construction of two multipurpose berths within the dock, (Nos. 2 and 13) is in progress. The No.2, being built by ITD Cementation, is due for commissioning in April and the No.13, by Simplex, in August next year. The commissioning of these two berths is expected to boost the dock's capacity by an additional three mt.

There is a further proposal to construct two more jetties outside the impounded dock on the riverfront. Right now there are three river front jetties, all handling crude, petroleum products and other liquid cargo.

Yet another move is afoot to augment the capacity through mechanisation of operation.

The HDC authorities are mulling acquisition of mobile harbour cranes (MHCs). However, several issues have to be sorted out before the proposed acquisitions materialise. First, the number of cranes to be acquired is still to be decided. Next, the mode of acquisition, i.e. whether it will be outright purchase or it will be acquisition on lease from private parties but operation by the port's own employees or both supply and operation of the equipment will be by the private firm themselves.

"There are several models and we're yet to zero in on the one to be most suitable for our purpose", the spokesman added. It might be noted that HDC has already installed four RTGs (rubber tyred gantries) and two RMQCs (rail mounted quay cranes) to facilitate container handling operation.

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