Kandla port to develop 5 mt fertiliser handling facility

Unprecedented jump in fertiliser and wheat imports during the last couple of weeks and resultant chaos at the ports especially on the west coast has prompted the Centre to give mandate to Kandla port to develop a highly mechanized five-million tonne fertiliser handling facility.

The country's largest port will commission a study early next month for the proposed project, which will be completed by February or March next year, and will be followed by work on the project.

Janardan Rao, chairman, Kandla Port Trust, told Business Standard that the port would be spending between Rs 200 to Rs 250 crore on new proposed capacity, which would exclusively handle fertiliser import.

Rao said the Centre was upset that the private sector ports were unable to perform up to the expectations during the ongoing fertiliser and wheat import exercise.

The government of India imported fertilisers and food grain, mainly wheat, during the last couple of weeks, which has put tremendous pressure on ports on the west coast.

According to Rao, unsatisfactory performance of private ports prompted the ministry of shipping to give mandate to Kandla port to handle the fertiliser import exclusively on the west coast.

India imports around 10 million tonnes of fertilisers. Of which, 5 million tonnes each arrives on the east coast and the west coast.

The idea is to bring 5 million tonnes of fertilisers that arrive on the west coast exclusively through Kandla port. To handle this, KPT would develop a state-of-the-art fertiliser handling facility to take care of fertilisers right from unloading, packing to loading on trucks, said Rao.

"We will be commissioning a study in a month's time and will have the feasibility report ready by the end of first quarter," said Rao.

The new mechanized fertiliser import facility would cost Kandla port between Rs 200 crore to Rs 250 crore, according to Rao. The new facility would be commissioned within next 18 to 24 months.

With the commissioning of new fertiliser handling capacity, the total dry cargo handling capacity of the port would increase from the present 14 million tonnes to 19 million tonnes.

"The new fertiliser handling facility will be located at Tuna port, very close to Kandla," said Rao.

KPT has already launched the work on Tuna port. The road connecting Kandla port with Tuna and other infrastructure are being created by KPT.