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| Second oil berth worth Rs 172 crore at Paradip soon |
| BS Reporter / Kolkata/ Bhubaneswar Nov 27, 2009, 00:26 IST |
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Union Minister for Shipping, G K Vasan today laid the foundation stone for a 10 million tonne oil berth of the Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL) at Paradip port. The new oil berth is estimated to cost Rs 172.97 crore.
This will be the second oil berth in the port premises. The existing one has a capacity of 6 million tonne.
Sources said, the need to have a second oil berth arises out of the proposed plan of IOCL to build a 15 million tonne oil refinery at Paradip. The refinery project is scheduled to go on stream in 2012.
The existing oil berth will not be adequate to cater to the needs of the refinery. To meet the additional demand of handling of crude and POL products of IOCL, a second oil berth was required, they reasoned.
The Union minister also inaugurated a RO-RO Jetty for the use of Coast Guard and IOCL at Paradip Port.
The length of the jetty is 243 metres, which can accommodate both Coast Guard and IOCL vessels at a time and also can operate as two separate jetties, if required.
IOCL has already commissioned one Single Point Mooring at Paradip for pumping of crude oil to their refinery at Barunei and Haladia through pipeline. For this operation, the company required a jetty at Paradip. Similarly, in view of the present security scenario, a separate jetty was felt essential for Coast Guard vessels for quick berthing and sailing off.
Paradip Port has been handling considerable quantity of Project Cargo in the last couple of years. These Project Cargoes are handled in the existing berths. The need of a separate jetty for handling Project Cargo to reduce the waiting time was long felt. The new RO-RO jetty will meet these needs, thereby facilitating other berths to handle more general cargo.
During his visit, Vasan reviewed the operations of the Paradip port. K Raghuramaiah, chairman, Paradip Port Trust (PPT) apprised the Union minister on the steps taken by PPT to rescue the crew members of Black Rose, a Mongolian ship, which sank near the part on September 9. He also informed the minister on the measures taken to combat pollution arising out of the oil leakage from the vessel. Vasan appreciated the timely action of the PPT authorities to rescue the crew members of Black Rose and also its efforts to retrieve oil from the sunken vessel.
The PPT chairman gave a presentation to the minister on growth of traffic of the port, the recently completed projects, status of ongoing projects and future plans of the port.
Besides, Raghuramaiah apprised the minister on the signing of concession agreements with the BOT (build, operate and transfer) operators for the development of iron ore and coal berths.
On completion of the ongoing projects, the port capacity is expected to increase to 134 million tonnes by March 2012. Biplav Kumar, deputy chairman, PPT and other officials of the port trust were present on the occasion.
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