Kandla Port, BHEL in cargo pact

Port trust to halve wharfage; BHEL to route all project exports through KPT

In a move to increase the project cargo exports, Kandla Port Trust (KPT) has signed a memorandum of understanding with the public sector engineering giant Bharat Heavy Electrical Ltd (BHEL).

As per the memorandum of understanding, KPT will cut down the wharfage charges by half, while BHEL will route all its project exports through the Gujarat-based port.

The board of trustees of KPT, in a meeting held recently, had taken a decision to promote exports of project cargoes through the Kandla Port. (Project cargoes are those when the cargo size of one parcel is around 200 tonne. An export of a boiler is an export of project cargo.)

The board of trustees has also decided that KPT will favourably consider granting rebate for wharfage charges (loading or unloading charges) in case of import and export of project cargoes.

The MoU with BHEL is among the first to be sanctioned after the trustees took the decision.

BHEL has already undertaken the project exports of engineering goods to countries in Africa, the Gulf, South East Asia and the Far East. KPT has scaled down the wharfage charges for BHEL to facilitate export of the engineering goods through the port.

A K Joti, chairman of Kandla Port Trust, said that the first cargo to be shipped under the memorandum of understanding will worth Rs 400 crore and is destined for Sudan in Africa.

"But with the special concessions that we have decided to provide to BHEL, the volume and value of cargo sent and received by BHEL will increase."

He added that the port is ready to extent this facility to other companies too.

"It is expected that the memorandum of understanding will go a long way in improving the efficiency of the port and will also be an indicator of the port's capabilities of handling export and import of massive size engineering project cargoes in an efficient and cost effective manner," said Joti.

The MoU was signed between KPT and BHEL officials at the KPT administrative office in Gandhidham on April 19.

R K Sugandhi, general manager, BHEL and A K Joti chairman, KPT, signed the MoU.

According to the memorandum of understanding, while KPT has agreed to reduce wharfage charges to 50 per cent, BHEL has assured route its project cargo exports through the project braining with the Rs 400 crore exports.

In the longer run, BHEL will also consider to route project imports through the Kandla Port.