Orissa's Dhamra Port, a Tata Steel-L&T joint venture that became commercially operational on May 7 this year, has received the first capesize vessel. “China Steel Responsibility”, the 1.8-lakh-DWT capacity bulk carrier flying Chinese flag, brought around 1.5 lakh tonnes of coal from Australia for Tata Steel.
This was the largest bulk carrier ever to call at any of the ports in Orissa and West Bengal, according to Dhamra port sources.
The Chief Executive Officer of Dhamra Port, Mr Santosh Kumar Mohapatra, the Principal Secretary, Department of Commerce and Transport, Government of Orissa, Mr Gagan Dhal, the Collector of Bhadrak, Mr Akshay Kumar Pani, among other senior officials, were present at the jetty to receive the vessel.
The unloading of cargo, as the sources point out, will be completed in two days to enable the vessel to leave the port on July 27. The port, it might be noted, has two berths of 350 metres each and has presently a handling capacity of 25 MTPA (million tonnes a year). The 18-km long channel leading to the port has a depth of 18 metres enough to handle vessels upto 1,80,000 DWT.
The first cargo ship was berthed at Dhamra port on September 18, 2010. It was a trial run. Since then, the port has handled 20 ships including the present capesize one.
With the commencement of rail movement to and from the port from May, as many as 94 full rakes (each rake consists of 59 wagons) of cargo have been despatched out of the port to various locations.
The 62-km long Dhamra-Bhadrak rail link is connected to the Howrah-Chennai mail-line railway network, the sources add.