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| KoPT chairman Haripada Roy said the port has immense potential to carry large volume of inland water cargo and KoPT would itself participate in developing this sector which had been neglected so far. |
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| The decision on this involvement follows realisation that KoPT has unique natural advantages in terms of IWT, which is not available to any other sea port in the country. |
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| "KoPT is well connected with the northern heartland and north eastern states by national waterways 1 and 2. We have waited long for central agencies to develop basic minimum infrastructure for movement of cargo. KoPT can take some direct steps to provide trade with IWT facilities and develop it as the prime alternative to land cargo in some areas," Roy said. |
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| To begin with, the port is considering to build jetties along the waterway to ensure smooth handling of cargo at different destination. The port is also trying to maintain least available draft of 2 metres along the waterways. Once traffic picks up, the port might think of providing night navigation facility. |
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| However, these are daunting tasks and the enormity of the job can be best explained by the fact that the government did not consider IWT as an infrastructure sector until recently. So far, this responsibility was vested with IWAI but not much has happened. The private sector did not move in as there was no infrastructure. |
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| KoPT feels that if it provides some support through infrastructure, private sector operators would come in to develop cargo volume. User fees would provide the return on investment. |
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| Sea cargo has been staying away from Kolkata owing to draft problems, with Paradeep or Vishakhapatnam offering 10-12m draft. In contrast, the Haldia Dock Complex can boast of average 9m draft throughout the year while Kolkata Dock System (KDS) has not more than 6.5-7m. |
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| KoPT wants to turn this disadvantage as its unique selling point by promoting itself as the port offering best facilities in terms of IWT which is much cheaper than road or rail transport. |
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| "IWT is best suitable for carrying over dimensional cargoes (ODCs) of non-perishable nature. Barges of 4,000 to 5,000 tonne can easily go upto north India or to the north east using this sector," Roy said. |
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| IWT has now gained importance for KDS as its sea cargo is going down every year. It has been seen as the alternative which can provide necessary revenues for future growth of KDS. |
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| KoPT hopes to carry 380,000 tonne of IWT in 2004-05 as against 370,000 tonne at present. However, it would like to grow much faster than projected. |
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