Mitsui, KoPT may set up container terminal

Japanese giant Mitsui has evinced interest to develop a container terminal with Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT) at the Saugor Island.

Confirming the development, Anup K Chanda, chairman, KoPT said, a representative from Mitsui would be shortly visiting Kolkata to discuss the project with the port.

The terminal is being planned at a time when the KoPT is about to commission virtual jetty at Saugor. "We want to develop a full fledged dock complex at Saugor which has deeper draft than Kolkata and Haldia. Virtual jetty was the first block of the entire project. We will continue to add on new facilities. Container terminal is the next step in that direction," he said.

The port had demonstrated the potential of Saugor by building the virtual jetty which would handle bulk cargo like iron ore, coke and pulses, experts said. "The interest shown by Japanese company reinforces the potential," they added.

Saugor has 10.5 meter draft which would enable larger ships to call at the terminal. At present, ships can not visit Kolkata with more than 500 containers due to shallow draft. The situation at Haldia is little better having draft to handle 700 containers at best. In contrast, the ships would be able to visit Saugor with 1200 containers.

"Once the full fledged dock complex come up at Saugor, we will also be able to handle mother vessels there," Chanda said at the sidelines of an interactive session with Federation of Indian Export Organisation (FIEO) in Kolkata on Wednesday.

At present, small feeder vessels call at Haldia and Kolkata to take containers to transshipment ports like Singapore and Colombo for final destination. If the mother vessels start visiting Saugor, traders can ship cargo directly from here, thereby saving substantial amount in logistics cost.

The development augurs well for KoPT which has been heavily dependent on bulk and liquid cargo. With Indian Oil Corporation planning to stop import crude oil through Haldia port after it lays a pipeline from Paradip, KoPT has to look at other option for survival.

Given the large scale containerisation of traffic at the international level, the terminal at Saugor will come handy in attracting additional cargo from domestic and international business community.