The Hindu Business Line : Panel clears Paradip port proposal to build 2 berths

Kolkata May 7 Paradip Port Trust's proposal for the construction of two berths, one for handling iron ore exports and the other for coking coal imports, on BOT basis under the PPP (public private partnership) model has received the in-principle approval of the Public Private Partnership Appraisal Committee of the Union Government.

"We will now appoint consultants on financial and legal matters to prepare relevant documents and shortly invite bids," Mr K. Raghuramaiah, Chairman of Paradip Port Trust, told Business Line.

Each berth will have the capacity of 10 million tonnes (mt). While the iron ore berth is estimated to cost Rs 505 crore, the coal berth is a little less at Rs 388 crore. The berths should be ready for operation by 2010-11.

The throughputs of iron ore exports and coking coal imports at Paradip port posted significant jumps in the past few years. In 1999-2000, the iron ore throughput was 1.03 mt, which jumped to 11.88 mt in 2006-07. During the same period, the throughput of coking coal jumped from 1.5 mt to 4.27 mt.

"Transcare Logistics India Pvt Ltd, which prepared a business plan for the port, has also forecast big jump in the volume of both iron ore and coking coal traffic in the coming years," Mr Raghuramaiah observed. Meanwhile, Paradip Port Trust posted 31.84 per cent rise in traffic throughput at 3.25 mt in April this year, compared to 2.47 mt in the same month last year.

Rise in throughput

The growth is attributed to the rise in the throughput of several commodities such as petroleum products, 33.51 per cent at 1,15,734 tonnes (86,686 tonnes), iron ore, 8.23 per cent at 9,80,089 tonnes (9,05,566 tonnes), fertiliser raw materials dry, 392.63 per cent at 3,62,800 tonnes (73,645 tonnes), thermal coal, 19.61 per cent at 9,37,539 tonnes (7,83,818 tonnes) and other cargo, 70.85 per cent at 5,84,623 tonnes (3,42,310 tonnes).

In April this year, the port handled 5,720 tonnes of containerised traffic compared to nil in the same period last year. It handled 1.37 mt of imports (7.56 lakh tonnes) and 1.87 mt of exports (1.71 mt).