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Cochin Port Trust is working on developing an outer harbour off the Puthuvypeen Special Economic Zone.
The project envisages development of two breakwaters to the extent of six km from shore, construction of port structures: separate facilities for handling bulk, liquid and container cargoes and rail and road connectivity. According to Paul Antony, Port Trust Chairman, the project cost is estimated at Rs 8,000 crore.
Antony told Business Line that the outer harbour project is being taken up based on the findings of a study carried out by IIT-Chennai on reducing the dredging cost.
Feasibility study
At present, the rising dredging expenditure cost is posing a big problem to the port. Incidentally, the port’s dredging cost currently is the second highest after Kolkata Port. The Mumbai-based i-maritime Consultancy has submitted a feasibility report for the outer harbour project and modelling studies are underway at CWPRS, Pune, he said. According to him, the port experiences movement of substantial quantity of sand from north to south at its mouth due to the littoral drift phenomenon.
Consequently, about 300 hectares of land has been accreted off Puthuvypeen along the west coast while the shoreline further south has been eroded over the years.
Dredging
Conceptual studies show that the intensity of the sea erosion experienced on the western coast of Kochi can be reduced if two breakwaters each extending 6 km into the sea are put up at the mouth of the port.
The studies suggest that an associated benefit of the breakwater could be a significant reduction in maintenance dredging loads. At present the annual siltation load at the port is around 18 million cubic metres and this is expected to increase to 21 million cubic metres with the operationalisation of the LNG Terminal and Multi User Liquid Terminal at Puthuvypeen that will make Kochi port with the maximum dredging requirements in the country.
Preliminary studies reveal that the breakwaters can also be leveraged to develop the outer harbour with about 7,000 metres of berths and approximately 2,000 acres of land at Puthuvypeen, he said, adding that the port is undertaking further studies to establish the techno-economic viability of the project.
sajeevkumar.v@thehindu.co.in
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