Move to share urea cargo with deep-water port

The Cocanada Chamber of Commerce is moving towards sharing urea from the Kakinada anchorage port with the deep-water port, which is managed by Kakinada Sea Ports Limited (KSPL), a private consortium.

The government had imposed certain restrictions on the deep-water port when it was handed over to the private consortium in order to protect the fishermen community, who depend on the port for livelihood.

The restrictions included that the deep-water port should not handle general cargo like rice, fertilisers (urea, DAP), cement, maize, coal and sand. The deep-water port was allowed to handle liquid, hard and dirty cargo.

The chamber is of the opinion that the accumulated urea at ports abroad, which cannot be handled by the Kakinada anchorage port, can be entrusted to the local traders.

"We want to make trials for sharing the urea cargo in both ports "" anchorage and deep-water "" for creating an integrated Kakinada Port. If we will give a chance to divert 50 per cent share to the deep-water port, we can utilise the bumper urea stocks," Dantu Surya Rao, chairman of Cocanada Chamber of Commerce, said.

The chamber is also planning a meeting with boat workers and steel barge owners in this regard.

Rao said no injustice would be done to the boat workers and barge owners even if urea is diverted to the deep-water port, provided the anchorage port has sufficient capacity of urea for handling.

However, a leader of the Steel Barge Owners Association told Business Standard that they would not accept any such proposal.

"We have lost investments due to insufficient cargo to the anchorage port two years back. If we accept the chamber's proposal, we would lose our privileges permanently in future," he said.