The work on coal and iron ore berths at the Paradip port, already delayed by two years, is expected to start shortly.
“The forest clearance from the Orissa Government will be available by the end of this month and final clearance from the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests by August 31, and hopefully the work will start in September, Mr G.J. Rao, Chairman of Paradip Port Trust (PPT), told Business Line over phone from Paradip. “We now see light at the end of the tunnel”.
The two berths, each with the capacity of 10 million tonnes, are estimated to cost about Rs 900 crore.
Ppp route
The implementation will be through the PPP (public-private partnership) route and accordingly, two concessional agreements were signed — one in July 2009 with Blue Water Iron Ore Terminal Pvt Ltd, a special purpose vehicle (SPV) of the Nobel Group, for the iron ore berth; and the other in November 2009 with Essar Paradip Terminals, the SPV floated by the Essar Group, for the coal berth.
Meanwhile, the public hearing for environmental clearance for multipurpose berth and oil jetty was held recently.
“It will be at least another six months or so before various statutory clearances become available”, Mr Rao observed.
Performance
PPT, as the Chairman informed, posted 7.14 per cent growth in traffic in the first quarter of the current fiscal at 14.6 mt as compared to 13.6 mt in the same period last year.
The increase was largely due to rise in throughputs of two items, namely coking coal imports at 1.7 mt (1.3 mt) and petroleum products 3.8 mt (3.2 mt).
While the thermal coal traffic remained unchanged at 3.9 mt, the iron ore traffic declined to 2.6 mt (three mt), he added.