The Hindu Business Line : Rains, Maoists’ stir hit Vizag port operations

Visakhapatnam, Sept. 24 Heavy rains as well as the agitation taken up by the Maoists have marginally affected the movement of iron ore for the past few days on the Kirandul-Kothavalasa line between Kirandul and Jadalpur. For the past four days, the cargo handling has also been badly hit at the port and normalcy was being restored only on Monday, according to sources in the port. According to the sources, the Vizag port handles 1.8 lakh tonnes of throughput, but during the past four days the throughput had dropped to 70,000-80,000 tonnes. Fertiliser handling was particularly affected and five vessels had to be kept waiting. Oil tankers also could not be berthed.

The problem was also compounded to an extent by the agitation taken up by the Maoists and the movement of iron ore on the Kothavalasa-Kirandul (KK) line was partially affected. Iron ore is brought to the Vizag port from the Bailadilla mines through the KK line. Till date, the Visakhapatnam port has handled 29.3 million tonnes of cargo during the current fiscal, with iron ore taking the lion’s share (8 million tonnes). The loading of rice into vessels was also affected at Kakinada port in the past 4-5 days due to the heavy rains and only on Monday could it be resumed.

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