Shipping Ministry not to downgrade KoPT cargo target

The Shipping Ministry has ruled out any possibility of revising downward the cargo target for the Kolkata Port Trust(KoPT) on account of loss of crude cargo to the Haldia-Paradip pipeline. It insisted that the port would have to innovate ways to attract new cargo.

KoPT has been set a target of 56.11 million tonnes(mt) for this fiscal including 42.7 mt for the Haldia Dock complex(HDC). However, HDC has already started losing cargo to the newly commissioned 300-kilometer long crude pipeline between Haldia and Paradip as Indian Oil Corporation has indicated that it will shift around 8 mt of cargo to the pipeline.

"The pipeline did not happen overnight, it has been a long process and the port is ought to look for newer sources of cargo", said Rakesh Srivastava, joint secretary, ministry of shipping.

He suggested that KoPT can bag the coal cargo for National Themal Power Corporation(NTPC)'s Farakka and Kahalgaon plants that could be transported in barges from Haldia. "KoPT is now working on tying up with Central Inland Water Transport Corporation (CIWTC) for the barge requirement and things should be initiated within the next three months", Srivastava said.

NTPC's net coal import requirement is around 29 mt per year and these two plants can roughly account for around two to three mt of cargo.