The Hindu Business Line : SAIL plans coastal movement of imported coal between Vizag, Paradip, Haldia ports

Kolkata, Aug 7 Beleagured by the draft problem in the Hooghly river near Haldia dock, Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL), a major importer of coal through the dock, is planning coastal movement of imported coal between Visakhapatnam and Paradip ports and Haldia and has accordingly invited bids from ship-owners, coastal operators, brokers/agents and others. The draft restriction in the Hooghly river prevents large bulk-carriers with sizeable parcel load to call at the Haldia dock.

Hooghly river navigability

The problem has now become critical, so much so that a 65,000-dwt bulk carrier can come to the dock with around 30,000 tonnes or so. This is proving costly to the importer. SAIL, therefore, is planning to bring large vessels with full load at Paradip and Visakhapatnam ports, which being sea ports, do not suffer from the kind of navigability problems that afflict the river port such as Haldia.

Part of the consignments to be unloaded at these ports will be reloaded in self-propelled barges or mini-bulkers for second round of discharge at Haldia. To start with, SAIL proposes to move by the coastal route an estimated six lakh tonnes of coal.

Most preferred

For SAIL, Haldia is the most preferred port for handling imported coal for all its plants except the one located at Bhilai. The Bhilai plant is served by the Visakhapatnam port. The rail transportation cost of moving imported coal from Haldia to plants located at Durgapur, Bokaro, Burnpur and even Rourkela is the lowest, so much so that SAIL, at one time, routed through Haldia more than 50 per cent of its total requirement of imported coal. The figure has since dropped to 44 per cent or so due to the poor navigability of the river.

In 2007-08, SAIL imported an estimated 4.6 million tonnes of coal through Haldia and the import for the current year is targeted at six mt or so.

Related Stories:
SAIL for coastal movement of coal
SAIL holding 4.5 lakh tonnes imported coal at Vizag, Haldia, Paradip ports

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