Dhamra port closure by Sept '06

The Dhamra Port Company Ltd (DPCL), a 50: 50 joint venture between Tata Steel and L&T expects to achieve financial closure for its greenfield port project at Dhamra in Bhadrak district by September end, 2006.

The Rs 2,400 crore port project with a final cargo handling capacity of 83 million tonnes is likely to have a debt equity ratio of 3:1.

The company has almost completed the land acquisition for the port site of 912 acres while the land procurement for the 63KM rail corridor connecting the port to mail line at Bhadrakh is in progress.

The work will be taken up as soon as the process is completed.

Though the master plan provides for 13 berths capable of handling dry, bulk, break bulk, liquid bulk and containerised cargo per annum, in the first phase the company intends to build two deep draught berths for dry bulk and one berth for clean cargo, which will be completed by April 2009.

Meanwhile, with 44 MoUs signed envisaging creation of 58 million tonnes of steel capacity and a number of aluminium and power projects lined up for implementation in Orissa, DPCL is eyeing to position itself as the main gateway for both inward and outward bound cargo to be generated from these industries.

"Dhamra port is ideally located between Paradip and Haldia and close to the mineral hinterland of Orissa, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Chhatisgarh where many mineral based industries are coming up", says Santosh Mohapatra, chief executive officer (CEO) of DPCL.

In steel making, for one tonne of steel, 0.7 to 0.8 million tonne of coking coal and lime stone are required, most of which are imported.

Add to this the export of finished products, the spurt in import/export cargo traffic from the region will be huge, he explains.

Meanwhile, to firm up future traffic for the port DPCL has started wooing Arcelor-Mittal, which proposed to set up a shore based 12 million tonne steel plant in Orissa, to locate its project near Dhamra.

To this effect the company had made a presentation to the Mittal Steel officials at Bhubaneswar recently.

Dhamra is one of the seven locations short listed by LN Mittal company for their mega venture in Orissa.

Mohapatra said that with 18 metre draught, Dhamra will be the deepest port in the country capable of handling super cape size vessels up to 1,80,000 DWT. This will bring down the cost of import of coking coal from Australia by $7-8 per tonne thus making it the favoured port for the industries vis-à-vis the existing ones.

The project, being set up on BOOST (Build, Own, Operate, Share and Transfer) model, is expected to generate revenues of Rs 4000 crore for the state and another Rs 6,800 crore for the Centre during its 31 year operation before the assets are transferred back to the state government.

Besides, it is expected to create direct employment of 0.35 man days and indirect employment of 13 lakh man days during the construction period.