Anchored in the Bay of Bengal off Sagar Islands in South 24 Parganas is a blue-coloured Cyprus-flag mini cape-size ship, MV Kishore . It contains some 54,000 tonnes of Indonesian coal, approximately half of its capacity.

Two floating cranes are unloading coal into the barges, capable of carrying approximately 4,000 tonnes each, which will be headed for Haldia river port, under the Kolkata Port Trust, before the cargo reaches Orissa Metaliks and Rashmi Cement facilities by rail.

Transloading points

In maritime lingo, this is called transloading. The location is mentioned in the map as Sagar anchorage of Kolkata Port Trust. There is another anchorage further out in the sea at Sandheads, where transloading is done from bigger ships during October-March, when the sea is calm.

Kolkata Port Trust has been trying this option for some time to overcome draft restrictions on the river port. This is the biggest ship as well as cargo parcel they have handled so far at this location. The previous best was approximately 30,000 tonnes from smaller Panamax vessels.

“KoPT is now in a position to handle capsize vessels round the year, which were earlier going to nearby Dhamra and Paradip ports,” Vinit Kumar, Chairman, KoPT, told BusinessLine . The port invested in floating cranes in April this year to pave way for more transloading operations.

Win-win situation

According to Kumar, transloading is a win-win for all. KoPT handled 12 million tonnes of coal last year. Kumar expects the volumes to go up significantly this year. He is betting on the coal shortage in steel and cement sectors that are expected to go for heavy imports from next month.

For customers, the primary advantage is ready availability of rakes. According to Kumar, his port will take 24-25 days to unload cargo from ship and load it into rakes. In comparison, the entire process takes 30 days in Dhamra or Paradip, where rakes are in short supply.

The port is charging ₹380 a tonne (including ₹130 a tonne for floating crane and ₹250 a tonne as port charges). According to a port official, this is comparable to Dhamra and Paradip that charge ₹350 a tonne.

In the final analysis, customers benefit as they pay comparable charge for lower waiting period, Kumar said. KoPT earns ₹100 a tonne from transloading operations.

Targets

KoPT handled around 58 million tonne of cargo last fiscal and is expecting it to go up to 60 million tonnes by FY19. While the Haldia Dock system is expected to handle 42 million tonnes this fiscal, Kolkata Dock system has set a target to handle 18 million tonnes.

The port had seen 27 per cent jump in operating surplus to ₹838 crore for FY18 as against the ₹629 crore in FY17.

“As volumes go up, we may look at more options,” the Chairman said.

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