The Hindu Business Line : Paradip port to double capacity to 100 mt

The Paradip Port Trust (PPT) proposes to augment its capacity to 100 million tonnes (mt) by the end of the Eleventh Plan from the existing 51 mt, according to its Chairman, Mr K. Raghuramaiah.

Public, private partnership

"Since the projected additional capacity will be built by way of PPP (public private partnership), our own investment in this regard will be limited to creating certain infrastructure," Mr Raghuramaiah told Business Line over phone from Paradip. "We'll be required to spend an estimated Rs 300-600 crore for the deepening of the channel and the berths and another Rs 300 crore for the construction of breakwaters," he said.

Anniversary celebrations

The PPT, which celebrated its 41st anniversary on Wednesday , recorded a traffic throughput of 27.93 mt in the first nine months of the current fiscal (April to December 2006), up by more than 14 per cent over 24.47 mt handled in the same period of last year.

"This is the highest throughput ever achieved by the port in the first three quarters," the Chairman said indicating that the current fiscal might close with a throughput of 37 mt as compared to 33 mt in 2005-06.

Currently, the port has 14 berths with a total capacity of more than 50 mt.The highlights of the anniversary celebrations included organising half- marathon race in which more than 400 people participated, inauguration of a new OPD block in the port hospital, organising a lecture on "Seafaring Orissa and Looking At Tomorrow" addressed by Mr Sitakanta Mahapatra, a bureaucrat as well as an eminent literary figure, and cultural programmes, Mr Raghuramaiah added.