The Hindu Business Line : Chennai port to have closed coal conveyor system

Chennai, Dec. 4 The Chennai Port Trust will install a semi-mechanised closed coal conveyor system at two berths at a cost of Rs 43 crore. This is to prevent pollution from coal dust and eliminate movement of coal carrying trucks within the port.

The city-based Chettinad Logistics of the M.A.M. Ramaswamy group will install the conveyor system in Jawahar Dock IV and VI. The new system is expected to be in place by April 2008, according to the Chennai Port Trust Chairman, Mr K. Suresh.

Wind curtains

Coal dust has been creating a lot of pollution within the port and neighbourhood especially the State Secretariat located opposite the coal storage yards. In May 2005, the port trust spent Rs 37 lakh to install wind curtains along the harbour’s beachfront to prevent wind carrying coal dust into the city. It installed the curtains made of ultraviolet resistant fabric over 1.5 km to the east of the coal terminal.

Without generating dust

The new conveyor system will run for a length of 5 km and transfer the coal unloaded from vessels at JD berths to the individual coal plots at the southern end of the port without generating dust. The conveyor will run at an elevation of 10-13 metre and will have provision for longitudinal movement along the road to the plots and transverse movement for stacking coal at individual plots.

The system will enable handling of coal from the two berths to coal plots, from where the cargo will be transported by rail to respective destinations. Productivity in coal handling at the port will also improve, while reducing the dust pollution to negligible levels, he said.

Ennore port

The new conveyor system is expected to remain functional for around five years, till Ennore Port is ready to handle coal for non-TNEB (Tamil Nadu Electricity Board) clients. Congestion on roads will reduce significantly and it will be possible to move container-laden trailers to and from the second container terminal, which is expected to be functional from April 2009, he said.

The Chennai port used to handle around 10 million tonnes of various types of coal (predominantly thermal coal). However, after Ennore was commissioned in 2001, around eight million tonnes of coal was transferred from Chennai.

Despite the loss of TNEB coal (which has moved to the Ennore port), Chennai is still required to handle around eight million tonnes of coal for clients such as the Andhra Pradesh State Electricity Board, Karnataka Power Corporation, cement plants of Tamil Nadu and independent power producers in northern Tamil Nadu and southern Andhra Pradesh.