The Hindu Business Line : Paradip begins handling finished fertilisers again

Paradip port has started handling finished fertilisers after about 10 years. It just completed unloading about 27,000 tonnes of imported urea. Two more ships are due to come in December, according to Mr K. Raghuramaiah , Chairman of Paradip Port Trust.

Welcoming the arrival of a new cargo in the port, Mr Raghuramaiah, however, explained the constraints in handling the material in large volumes. "While we can unload about 4,000-5,000 tonnes of the imported fertilisers a day, the evacuation of only about 3,600 tonnes, equivalent of one and half rakes, will be possible per day because the limited siding and bagging and stitching and warehousing facilities available in the port," he observed.

The issue of utilising facilities of Paradip port for handling imported fertilisers came up for a review recently at a high-level meeting here. Right now, large quantities of fertilisers are routed through Visakhapatnam port, which, it is alleged, is finding it difficult to handle.

The not-so-satisfactory transportation system hindering evacuation of the imports out of the port together with poor handling at the port level has hit the availability of fertilisers in West Bengal, complain fertiliser industry sources here.

Rabi season

The rabi season having started in full swing, there is a good deal of demand for potash, which is entirely imported, and phosphates, partially imported. However, the availability of the materials in the State right now falls short of their demand.

The high-level meeting, held in the presence of a senior official of the Fertilisers Ministry, noted that the imported fertilisers being sold in West Bengal are routed only through Visakhapatnam port, which is far away from West Bengal, and not through either Kolkata port (including Haldia) or Paradip. The problem with Kolkata/ Haldia is that big ships with large parcel load cannot call there because of the poor navigability of the river.

Better choice

Paradip, being sea port, is a better choice. In fact a senior member in the fertiliser industry recently expressed himself strongly in favour of Paradip as an alternative to Visakhapatnam for handling fertiliser imports.

Another problem related to the non-availability of enough railway rakes for evacuation of the imported material out of the port area with the result, as the industry sources point out, large quantities of murate of potash and di-ammonium phosphate imported by different companies and traders are lying without being cleared in Visakhapatnam port.

The Railways, it is pointed out, has clamped restrictions on the splitting of rakes and on covered wagons.

But there are some sidings that are not long enough to accommodate a full rake.

The splitting of rakes in such situations becomes unavoidable. There are some location-specific restrictions.

The West Bengal Government has been urged to take up the matter with appropriate authorities to avoid probable shortage of the imported fertilisers during the peak of the rabi season.

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