TM International Logistics, a 51 per cent subsidiary and the logistics arm of Tata Steel, has floated a new company, TM Harbour Services Ltd, to undertake tugging operation in ports.

To start with, the new company has launched operation at Orissa's Dhamra port, built jointly by Tata Steel and Larsen & Toubro.

“TM Harbour Services has acquired three new tugs at a total cost of over Rs 100 crore from China and the vessels have been deployed at Dhamra port,” according to a spokesman of the company.

“Depending on the availability of opportunities, we will acquire more tugs and operate at other ports”.

Dhamra port, as it was pointed out, recently handled a Capesize vessel (175,000 dwt) for the first time, hoping more such vessels would call at the port from October onwards.

Right now, the average draft available at the port is around 16.5 metres, likely to rise further.

Dharma port capacity

TMIL, it might be noted, has been entrusted with O&M (operation and maintenance) job of Dhamra port.

“Although rail movement to and from Dhamra started from May, we have been present at the port for more than a year now and we employ around 250 people”, the spokesman said, adding that the future of Dhamra was bright and it had all the potentials to emerge as a major bulk handling port of the east.

The traffic throughput at Dhamra in the current fiscal, which would be the first year of operation, might not be significantly large.

It could be even less than 10 million tonnes as compared to the declared capacity of 25 million tonnes due to several reasons.

First the operation would take time to stabilise. But more important, it was not enough to have only modern berths which the port had in any case.

Far more critical was the availability of supporting facilities which were yet to develop in full.

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