Kakinada Sea Ports gross revenue up 75%

The Kakinada Sea Ports Limited (KSPL) has registered a gross revenue of Rs 42 crore in the fiscal ended March 31, 2005, representing a growth of 75 per cent over the previous fiscal's revenue of Rs 24 crore.

Speaking to Business Standard, KSPL general manager K S Tripathy said that the cargo volumes, which grew from 1.5 million MT (metric tonnes) in 1999-2000 to 5.6 million MT in 2003-04, have crossed 10.4 million MT in 2004-05.

The port is expected to further boost its cargo handling performance to 12.5 million MT in the new financial year 2005-06.

At present, the port imports cargo including edible oils, chemicals (phosphoric acid, sulphuric acid), gases (ammonia), dry cargo such as wood pulp and machineries, and project cargos.

On the exports front, the port exports iron ore, cement clinker, minerals including bentonite and feldspar, lighterage and crude oil, he said, adding that the Kakinada Deep Water Port is the second largest port in India to import edible oils.

The port has registered a record manual loading of 31,501 metric tonnes of iron ore in 22.5 hours and a crude oil lighterage of 10 million MT in two seasons.

The port has also reduced the pre-berthing waiting time and the vessel turnaround time, making the operations from the port economically viable for the customers.

In 2003-04, the pre-berthing time recorded by major ports in the country was five hours while it was 0.30 hours at the Kakinada port.While the vessel turnaround time was 3.5 days in all the major ports, it was 1.7 days at the Kakinada port.

The port has completed the laying and commissioning of the 4.5-km railway line at a cost of Rs 30 crore, thus connecting it to the SCR network and thereby boosting prospects of increase in cargo traffic.

In all, developmental works were undertaken at a cost of Rs 40 crore including development of sidings to handle 3 full rakes at a time. Backup area for handling bulk cargo has been developed to provide better facilities to the port users.

Maintenance of dredging and capital dredging to create depth for accepting new generation vessels of 12m draft has also been facilitated apart from the creation of additional berth space for offshore supply vessels.