WASHINGTON: Buoyed by an all-time record cargo handling of 76.38 million tonnes in 2015-16, Paradip Port Trust (PPT) plans to raise capacity from 118.50 mpta to 325 mpta by 2025 to become the country’s biggest port. “The port achieved an all-time cargo record throughput of 76.38 million tonnes during 2015-16 as against the previous year traffic of 71.01 MT, exhibiting a growth of 7.57 per cent,” PPT Chairman Rinkesh Roy told reporters here.
With this, PPT retains second position in cargo throughout among all major ports consecutively for past three years, he said, adding major cargo handled were thermal coals, crude oils, coking coal, lime stones, rock phsophates, iron ore pellets and oil products.
During the year, the berth day output has achieved 21,139 million tonnes as against 17,736 MT which translates to 19.18 per cent. By improving port efficiency parameters, PPT has handled 1561 ships during 2015-16 as against 1476 during previous year with a reduced berth occupancy of 66 per cent from 77 per cent, Roy said.
The port has also created a record by handling 7.61 MT in a single month in March, 2016 surpassing its previous best of 7.09 MT handled in February 2016, he said. An all-time record of 23.76 million tonnes of thermal coal was handled mechanically during 2015-16 surpassing the previous record of 21.33 MT during previous year.
Similarly, a record 2.33 million tonnes of iron ore pellet was loaded during the last fiscal surpassing the previous record of 1.60 MT during 2013-14, Mr. Roy said. Referring to financial parameters, the PPT Chairman said that the port has earned Rs 1173.03 crore during 2015-16 as against Rs 1160.46 crore in 2014-15. The net surplus after income tax stands at Rs 309.37 crore as against Rs 275.57 during the previous year, he said.
On future plans, Roy said the port has taken up various projects to increase the capacity from 118.50 mpta to 325 mpta by the year ending 2025 and it would become the highest capacity port in the country. In addition, a multi-purpose berth is being built to handle clean cargo including containers on BOT basis with an estimated cost of Rs 430.76 crore which would be operational by March, 2019, the Chairman said.
The port is also constructing a deep draft iron ore berth on BOT basis at an estimated cost of Rs 740.19 crore which would be operational by March, 2019, he said adding a deep draft coal berth is being built on BOT basis with an estimated cost of Rs 470.01 crore.
Further, there is a proposal on capacity augmentation under Sagarmala Project of the central government to develop an outer harbour at an estimated cost of Rs 4179 crore to handle Cape size vessels up to two lakh DWT with a draft of 22 metres, Roy said.
