Centre to pump Rs 3,141 cr into Paradip port

The Centre has proposed to scale up the capacity of the Paradip port from the present 76 million tonne per annum (tpa) to 133 mtpa by 2015 at an estimated cost of Rs 3,141.01 crore.

The proposed expansion would entail the installation of the second and third single-point mooring (SPM) by Indian Oil Corporation Limited at an estimated cost of Rs 1,492.33 crore and construction of Southern Oil Jetty at the port, involving an investment of Rs 191.01 crore, Parliament was told late last week.

Similarly, the Ministry of Shipping has also planned for the construction of a deep draft iron-ore berth, deep draft coal berth and multipurpose berth to handle clean cargo including container at an investment of Rs 591.35 crore, Rs 479.01-crore and Rs 387.31-crore respectively, minister G K Vasan said in the Rajya Sabha.

While the SPMs are scheduled to be completed by December 2012, the oil jetty is set for completion by December 2013. Similarly, the three proposed berths proposed to be constructed on the BOT (built, operate and transfer) mode are scheduled to be completed by September 30, 2015, Vasan informed Renubala Pradhan, MP from Orissa.

After expansion, the capacity of the port will be increased to 133 mtpa, when an additional 57 mtpa capacity would be added.

While the capacity of the two SPMs would be 22 mtpa, the capacity of each of iron ore and coal berths would be around 10 mtpa, where as the proposed capacity of the mutli-purpose berth would be around 5 mtpa, the minister informed. Vasan said various projects worth Rs 10,348.29 crore were under different stages of implementation in various major ports.

Besides the Paradip Port, the projects under construction or implementation in other major ports include Ennore Port (Rs 1,407 crore), Cochin Port (Rs 3,500 crore), Mumbai Port (Rs 1,460.52 crore), New Mangalore Port (Rs 526.03 crore), Tuticorin port (Rs 381.66 crore), Mormungao Port (Rs 252 crore) and Kandla Port (Rs 692.74-crore).

Similarly, the Visakahapatnam port in Andhra Pradesh has five different projects with an outlay of Rs 1250.55 crore under implementation and construction.