Paradeep Port Trust (PPT) has achieved the highest growth among all the major ports in the country in terms of traffic handling in 2009-10.
PPT has handled 57.01 million tonnes (mt) in 2009-10, registering a growth of over 22.84 per cent over 46.41 mt handled in 2008-09, thereby catapulting it to the fifth position among all the major ports from the eighth position which it held earlier.
The port has succeeded in clocking an impressive growth despite the global economic meltdown which had slackened the export and import business.
Addressing media persons here, PPT chairman K Raghuramaiah said, “The traffic handled at the Paradeep Port has more than doubled in the last six years. From 25.31 mt in 2003-04, it has reached 57.01 mt in 2009-10. A record quantity of 6.83 mt of iron ore was handled in the iron ore handling plant during 2009-10, surpassing the previous record of 5.84 mt in 2008-09.”
Of the 57.01 mt of cargo throughput of PPT, 11.65 mt was POL (petroleum, oil and lube), 16.16 mt iron ore, 14.82 mt thermal coal, 5 mt coking coal and the remaining 9.38 mt constituted other cargo.
While PPT's POL cargo shot up from 3.24 mt in 2008-09 to 11.65 mt in 2009-10, a surge of 259.57 per cent; the port posted a growth of 13.24 per cent, 0.81 per cent and 7.32 per cent in iron ore, thermal coal and other cargo respectively in the said period.
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The only negative growth was witnessed in case of coking coal which went down from 5.46 mt to 5 mt, a decline of 8.42 per cent.
The port's performance was also noteworthy on the financial front. PPT's operating income in 2009-10 stood at 786.41 crore in 2009-10, a 12.84 per cent rise over Rs 696.71 crore in 2008-09.
Similarly, the operating expenditure of the port went up from Rs 358.17 crore to Rs 409.17 crore in the same period. Of late, PPT completed many significant projects like commissioning of an RO-RO jetty for handling of project cargo at an estimated cost of Rs 4.83 crore on March 31, 2010.
Besides, it constructed a 160 metre berth for berthing of vessels of Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) and another berth of 108 metres for berthing of Coast Guard vessels in view of increased security needs.
With a view to simplify transactions between the port and the users, PPT has introduced the Electronic Data Interchange System.
On the connectivity front, the four-laning of the road from Chandikhole to Paradeep executed by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) at an estimated cost of Rs 442 crore has been completed in December 2009. PPT contributed Rs 40 crore for this project.
PPT also has 10 per cent equity in the new Paradeep-Haridaspur railway track executed by rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL). The work on this project has already taken off and it is scheduled to be completed by June 2011.
Presently, PPT is undertaking the work of deepening of channel at a cost of Rs 253.36 crore and the work is being implemented by the Dredging Corporation of India.
Among the future projects, PPT plans to construct a multipurpose berth with a capacity of five million tonne per annum. A proposal has also been initiated to construct an oil berth at an estimated cost of Rs 172.97 crore.