Comments
Kandla Port is set to increase cargo handling capacity from 85 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) to 125 MTPA in two- to-three years.
“Work on seven more schemes is under progress. One has been taken up by the Railways. Two are under the process of approval and three under planning stages,” Mr M.A. Bhaskarachar, Vice-Chairman, Kandla Port Trust (KPT), told Business Line today.
Projects
KPT is also gearing up to implement some projects by the end of 2011-12. These are the setting up of a Single Point Mooring and allied facilities off Veera in the Gulf of Kutch, barge handling facilities at Bunder Basin at Kandla Port on BOT basis, mechanisation of dry cargo berths and modification and strengthening of berths one to six to enhance service life, capacity and draught in Kandla Creek, he said.
Out of the planned investments of Rs 5,286 crore, KPT will fund Rs 1,183.58 crore through internal resources and Rs 3,949.46 crore will be invested by the build-operate-transfer (BOT) operators. All these schemes would be completed by 2014-15, he said. KPT handled 81.88 MT of cargo in FY11 as against 79.5 MT in FY10, and is targeting to ramp it up to 100 MT by 2012-13. For this, the port has entered into agreement with concessionaires of three dry cargo berths at New Kandla and one barge jetty at Old Kandla to develop these facilities on BOT basis. The port will also sign agreement for the 14th berth, berthing facilities off Tekra, barge handling facilities at Bunder Basin, SPM and mechanisation of dry cargo berths by 2011-12.
Mr Bhaskarachar said KPT is also planning to increase the draught along side the existing oil jetties number one to four and construct a new one to cater bunkering to the vessels.
Kandla Port has completed 10 of the 23 projects it undertook last year as part of the Rs 5,286-crore National Maritime Development Programme (NMDP).
As part of the programme, KPT is investing Rs 755 crore for the development of four dry cargo berths (numbers 13-16) in the first phase on BOT basis. This is expected to add 8 MTPA to capacity by March 2014. KPT has inked concession agreements for cargo berths 13, 15 and 16 and is expected to do so for berth 14 by December 2011.
Offshore dry cargo berths
As part of NMDP, KPT had planned to develop eight offshore dry cargo berths outside Kandla Creek at Tekra. Of these, work is on at different stages on berths 13 to 16 in the first phase. Under this, the dry bulk terminal will be capable of catering to four vessels up to 1,00,000 DWT at a time. With commissioning of the terminal the capacity of handling dry bulk cargo will increase by 14 MTPA.
Comments
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.