The Hindu Business Line : Paradip Port to float tenders for two berths

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Kolkata Feb. 6 Paradip Port Trust (PPT), according to its Chairman K. Raghuramaiah, hopes to float tenders for two new berths, one for iron ore exports and the other for coking coal imports, within the next two to three months.

Addressing members of the Federation of India Export Organisations (FIEO) here on Friday, Mr Raghumaiah said the construction of the two berths on BOT basis, to be completed within two to three years, would boost the port capacity by 20 million tonnes.

The total cost of constructing the two berths, complete with handling facilities, he estimated, would be close to Rs 900 crore but the burden on the port would be much less because of the PPP route to be followed. "The tenders will not be global tenders," he said.

Port capacity

Paradip port's capacity would be up by 15 mt to reach the level of 66 mt from the beginning of next fiscal, the Chairman said. This would be possible because of the commissioning of the single point mooring being installed by the Indian Oil Corporation to handle large crude carriers at the port.

The estimate for the dredging work, revised to Rs 253 crore as compared to the earlier estimate of Rs 154 crore, had been sent to the Ministry for approval and the budgetary support would cover only one-third of the cost, he said.

On completion of dredging, the draft at the berths would increase to 16 metres from the present 12 metres or so. In 2006-07, the port's traffic volume would touch the level of 38 mt, up from 33 mt in 2005-06.

Till December, it was 27.93 mt. "The growth has been achieved without any significant addition to the port capacity," he said, pointing out that the throughput of iron ore and coal would be about 12 mt each by March 31, 2007.

In 2007-08, the traffic was projected to increase to 48 mt and the bulk of the increased throughput would be crude.