TransCare Logistics India Private Ltd, part of the TransCare group of companies based in Germany, has forecast a traffic handling of 100 million tonne for Paradeep Port Trust (PPT) by 2016-17.
As per the business plan prepared by the consultant, the cargo handling is expected to increase from 46.41 million tonne in 2008-09 to 57 million tonne by the end of 2009-10.
Cargo handling is further projected to increase to 64 million tonne in 2010-11 and to 70 million tonne in 2011-12. This will finally increase to 100 million tonne by 2016-17.
Consistent with the projected growth of traffic, PPT has chalked out plans for significant capacity addition in the coming years. The port added 15 million tonne capacity during 2007-08 and 2008-09 taking the total port capacity to 71 million tonne by the end of the last fiscal.
“ TransCare India has forecast a traffic of 100 million tonne for Paradeep Port Trust (PPT) by 2016-17 and we are going for capacity addition as per the business plan prepared by it”, K. Raghuramaiah, chairman, PPT told Business Standard.
He said, on completion of the on-going projects and capacity addition, the potential of cargo handling by the port is expected to increase to 134 million tonne by the end of 11th five year plan i.e. by 2011-12. While the port will go up by 7 million tonne during the current fiscal, it will further increase by 26 million tonne in 2010-11. Similarly, 30 million tonne additional cargo handling capacity is proposed to be created during 2011-12.
Despite economic slowdown, PPT handled 18.21 million tonnes of cargo during the first four months (Apr-July) of the current fiscal which is 22.24 percent higher than the corresponding period of the previous fiscal. This is the highest growth among the major ports of the country, he added.
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On new projects, he said, the Single Point Mooring (SPM) was commissioned by the port in association with the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) on 28 December for handling crude oil. Similarly, one berth of 160 metres has been constructed and put to use for berthing of liquid cargo of IOC. Besides, one berth of 108 metres for berthing of Coast Guard vessels was commissioned in view of the increased security threat along the coast.
Sources said, the development of a new deep draught iron ore berth is being taken up on public-private-partnership (PPP) basis. The proposed berth will handle 10 million tonne iron ore for exports. Recently, PPT signed the concession agreement with Blue Water Company Ltd in this regard.
Similarly, the tender for building a new draught coal berth is under process and the concession agreement for this project is likely to be signed in next one month. This is proposed to be developed on Build-Own-Transfer (BOT ) basis through PPP mode.
The port also intends to construct one oil berth with a capacity of 10 million tonne at an estimated investment of Rs 172.97 crore. This is likely to be completed by March 2012.
While the 5 million tonne multi-purpose berth is likely to be completed by March 2012, the RO-RO jetty meant for handling project cargo is likely to be completed by the end of this month.
The port is also in the process of medernising and mechanising the existing berths to increase the throughput. As a measure in that direction, out of 8 general cargo berths, 3 have already been mechanised. While 2 berths are being mechanised this year, 3 berths are proposed to be mechanised in the next fiscal, sources added.