The Hindu Business Line : Haldia Dock officers’ forum disputes Kolkata Port Trust claims

In a statement issued here on Monday, the Chairman, Dr A.K. Chanda, gave an account of the impressive performance of Haldia dock in first four months of the current fiscal(April to July) . During the period, as the statement pointed out, the dock handled 15.14 million tonnes (mt) as compared to 14.85 mt (14.06 mt).

However, the Forum was quick to point out that the growth of traffic in first four months of this year had been lowest at less than two per cent over the same period last year.

On the other hand, in first four months of 2007-08, the throughput at 14.85 mt posted a growth of 5.62 per cent over 14.06 mt handled in the same period of 2006-07.

This dismal growth in traffic in the dock so far this year was recorded despite the capacity augmentation of 3 mt, representing eight per cent of the existing capacity, by way of the commissioning of two berths at a cost of Rs 95 crore.

Container Thoroughput

According to Dr Chanda, between April and July, the container throughput at Haldia dock at 47,487 TEUs was up by 40 per cent over 33,899 TEUs in the same period of 2007-08 and by 42 per cent over 33,364 TEUs in the same period of 2006-07.

Similarly, the iron ore throughput during the period at 3.44 mt was up by 15.4 per cent over the same period of 2007-08 and by 18.7 per cent over the same period of 2006-07 and coking coal throughput at 2.04 mt showed a growth of 13.3 per cent and 11.3 per cent respectively.

According to the Forum, a meagre 1.92 per cent growth in traffic in first four months of the current fiscal must be viewed against 19.26 per cent growth in Kandla, 18.89 per cent in JNPT, 16.21 per cent in Mormugao, 11.32 per cent in next door Paradip, 10.37 per cent in Visakhapatnam, over nine per cent at Tuticorin, a little less than nine per cent at Ennore, 4.84 per cent in Chennai and the national average of 8.26 per cent.

The poor traffic growth at Haldia, it was emphasised, must be attributed to the diversion of large volumes of bulk items to other ports due to the sharply deteriorating draft situation of the Hooghly river near the dock.

Quoting a survey report, the Forum pointed out that the navigable depth at lower Auckland was 3.7 metres in end July and likely to drop further to 3.5 metres in August, thus endangering the dock. The problem had been aggravated by breakdown of three dredgers deployed in the Hooghly. As a result, only two dredgers were now working in the river.