The Hindu Business Line : Kolkata port urges Ministry to lower Haldia traffic target

The Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT) has urged the Shipping Ministry to revise downward the traffic target for the Haldia dock for 2009-10 in view of the flight of crude traffic to Paradip.

However, the Ministry is yet to respond, according to KoPT sources.

Haldia dock traffic

For 2009-10, the Haldia dock has been set a traffic target of 42.7 million tonnes, up from 41.62 mt in 2008-09.

The target is based on an estimated crude and POL traffic of more than 16 mt comprising 13 mt of crude and 3.5 mt or so of products.

Such a projection, it is pointed out, is unrealistic when IndianOil has clearly indicated that it would handle at Paradip 8-10 mt of the 13 mt of crude so far handled at the Haldia dock.

The crude, to be handled at Paradip, is to be transported to Haldia by the new 300-km Paradip-Haldia pipeline. In fact, crude movement by the pipeline has already started.

KoPT has, therefore, suggested to the Ministry to set a realistic traffic target for Haldia for the current fiscal.

The suggestion is that about 8-10 mt of crude traffic, to be handled at Paradip, should be deducted from Haldia dock’s last year’s traffic throughput of 41.62 mt and to the figure reached should be added a five per cent general growth in traffic.

Iron ore traffic

KoPT has also questioned the dock’s 2009-10 iron ore traffic target of 8.9 mt. In 2008-09, the dock handled 8.7 mt of iron ore exports against 9.8 mt in 2007-08, indicating a declining trend.

Yet, the ore export target for 2009-10 has been set at a higher level.

That the apprehension of the dock authorities is not totally unfounded is borne out by the traffic trend so far in the current fiscal.

The crude movement through the Paradip-Haldia pipeline having already started, in the first two-and-half months of this fiscal,

Haldia dock handled one mt of crude compared to 2.9 mt in the same period of last year.

The export of iron ore through the dock too slumped to 1.3 mt (2.15 mt).

During the period, the dock handled a total of seven mt compared to 9.17 mt in the same period of last year, that is, a drop of more than 30 per cent.