BHUBANESWAR: The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday approved a project with an estimated cost of Rs 3,004.63 crore for deepening of Paradip port to handle cape-size vessels or large-sized bulk carriers above 1.50 lakh metric tonne in weight.
Briefing reporters in Delhi, minister of state for ports, shipping and waterways Mansukh Mandaviya said the futuristic move is being taken keeping in mind the new ships being built in the world which can’t be anchored in Indian ports. When large-sized vessels can’t be anchored, these have to stop in deep sea and from there loading and unloading of cargo is done from or to smaller ones. This increases the logistics cost, he said.
Mandaviya said in the mineral rich Paradip-Kolkata cluster, in the next 10 years the cargo handling is expected to go up to 400 million metric tonne per annum by 2030 compared to 210 MMTs now.
At present Paradip port has capacity to berth ship of 1.10 lakh dead weight tonnage (DWT), which is a measurement of total contents of a ship, including cargo, fuel, crew, passengers, food and water. After completion of the new project it can handle vessels above 1.50 lakh to two lakh DWT.
As part of the new project, the government is planning to develop the western dock on build, operate and transfer (BOT) basis in public-private partnership. The Western Dock basin will have a capacity of 25 MTPA (Million tonnes per annum) in two phases of 12.50 MTPA each.
While the new dock will be developed at an estimated cost of Rs 2,040 crore, capital dredging would be done by spending Rs352.13 crore. The Paradip port would invest Rs.612.50 crore towards providing common supporting project infrastructure.
Union petroleum and steel minister Dharmendra Pradhan, in a tweet wrote, “This will help in de-congestion of the port, reducing sea freight as a result of handling large volumes, boosting industrial economy, generating employment opportunities and ushering a port-led development in Odisha and eastern India as per PM Modi’s vision of #Purvodaya.” “…the project will lead to significant enhancement of cargo handling capacity (25 MTPA) of Paradip Port and also enable it to handle cape size vessels and other heavy tonnage capacity carriers,” he said.
Government sources said the project will cater to the requirement of coal and limestone imports besides export of granulated slag and finished steel products considering the large number of steel plants established in the hinterland of Paradip. The project would generate 800 jobs in construction phase and around 200 once it becomes operational. Paradip Port Trust (PPT), a major port administered under the Major Port Trusts Act, 1963, was commissioned in 1966.