Vizag port appoints IPA as consultant

Move to mechanise coking coal cargo handling

The Visakhapatnam Port has appointed Indian Ports Association (IPA) as consultants to prepare a feasibility report for the proposed mechanised handling system at the general cargo berth (GCB). The management has decided to mechanise the handling facilities at a cost of about Rs 80 crore.

"Manual handling is resulting in wastage of time as ships have to wait for two days on an average to unload coking coal cargo at GCB. Due to this inordinate delay, there are instances of some ships being diverted to other ports. With a view to avoiding this, the port authorities have decided to go in for mechanising facilities at the GCB," K S D Dattu Raju, traffic manager, Vizag Port, told Business Standard.

At present, Vizag port is handling 70-80 lakh tonnes of coking coal a year. The port officials expect it to increase to 100-120 lakh tonnes over the next three-four years. In view of the large-scale coking coal cargo, GCB is solely earmarked to handle it.

With the present equipment, the port unloads 12,000-15,000 tonnes of coking coal per day at the GCB and evacuates 10,000-12,000 tonnes from the berth.

Once mechanical handling system becomes operational, apart from checking pollution caused by coke dust, the unloading rate would also go up to about 25,000 tonnes per day and the evacuation rate would also increase to about 25,000 tonnes per day.

The mechanisation would also considerably reduce the waiting time for ships from two days to four hours. The IPA team recently visited the port and it would submit its report very shortly, he said.

Vizag sea ports, which operates two berths "� EQ-8 and EQ-9 "� at the Vizag port, is also setting up mechanical handling facilities at EQ-8 berth for coking coal handing.