Paradeep Port has scaled an all-time high of handling 50 million tonnes of cargo on Wednesday despite the economic slowdown, resulting in a drop in exports and imports.
The port has achieved a growth of 27.06 per cent in cargo throughput in the current financial year so far which is the highest among all the major ports in the country.
The port now occupies fifth slot among all the major ports in terms of cargo handled in the current year so far.
The port aims to handle 57 million tonnes of cargo by the end of 2009-10, according to a release of the Paradeep Port Trust (PPT).
Meanwhile, steps have been taken to modernize and expand the Paradeep port to enable the construction of berths and jetties, mechanisation of existing berths through procurement, replacement and upgradation of port equipment.
Three expansion projects are proposed to be taken up at the Paradeep port on the public private partnership mode at an estimated cost of Rs 1457 crore. These projects include the development of a deep draught iron ore berth, a deep draught coal berth and a multipurpose cargo berth for handling clean cargo including containers. These projects will be completed within 25-30 months from the date of award of concession.
Sources said the concession agreement has already been signed for the deep draught iron ore berth.