The sluggish industrial growth and the subsequent drop in demand for petroleum products has put a question mark on the viability of a Rs 150-crore liquid cargo berth (LCB) at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust developed jointly by Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited and Indian Oil Corporation.
Though the berth was inaugurated more than three months ago, it is still to start commercial operations as the promoters are of the opinion that they would not be able to achieve the minimum guaranteed traffic of one million tonnes in the first year and four million tonnes in the fifth year of operation incorporated in the license agreement.
Besides the slow industrial growth, the other reason for the drop in traffic, according to promoters, is that the liquid cargo bulk berth (LCBB) being operated by JNPT for handling liquid cargoes was to be converted to handle container traffic after commissioning of the new LCB.
The liquid cargo traffic from this berth was supposed to be automatically transferred to the new LCB.
However, according to BPCL and IOC, JNPT has not yet stopped handling of liquid cargoes by LCBB, which will severely effect the volume of liquid cargoes to be handled at the new LCB.
