Odisha's Gopalpur port resumes operations after two years

The Gopalpur port off Ganjam coast in south Odisha resumed operations today after a gap of two years with the anchoring of a cargo ship. The vessel from Sri Lanka arrived near here with a shipment of around 20,000 tonne of sand of Odisha Sands Complex (OSCOM), a unit of Indian Rare Earths Ltd (IREL).

The cargo loading in the ship began on Saturday, after the port was formally reopened for commercial operations. "Some more cargo vessels have lined up to anchor during the current month", said Manmohan Moharana, director (operations) of Gopalpur Port Limited (GPL), the promoter of the port.

The port's operations came to a standstill after cyclone Phailin hit the state's southern coast on October 12, 2013. Exactly a year later, the port was hit again by Hudhud. The port had incurred around Rs 250 crore losses due to Phailin. The seasonal port was upgraded to an all-weather port in May 2013. The last vessel had anchored at the port on October 7, 2013, sources said.

Located at Arjeepalli, about 40-km from here, Gopalpur is the third port in Odisha after Paradip and Dhamara. GPL has already spent Rs 900 crore on the project to develop it into an all-weather port.

"The port has been repaired with enhancing of its cargo handling capacity. Vessels of around 50,000- tonne capacity can now anchor at the port. Earlier, 15,000 tonne vessel was anchored in the port", Moharana stated.

The depth and length of the jetty was increased to 12.5 metre and 225 metre from 10 meter and 150 metre respectively. "There is no problem to receive the big vessels in the repaired port," said Moharana.

GPL was jointly promoted by Orissa Stevedores Limited (OSL), New Delhi-based SIL (Sara International Limited) and Hong Kong based Noble Group. The consortium won the bid to develop the Gopalpur port into an all-weather port at an investment of Rs 1200 crore. Later, Noble Group pulled out of the consortium.