Haldia Dock at saturation point
Calcutta’ s Haldia Dock Authority has conceded it has reached saturation point, with an increase last year of just 0.28% to 42.45m tonnes. Today, ships can wait up to 18-19 days before berthing.
However, a new oil pipeline feeding Paradip port will divert an estimated 4m-5m tonnes of crude oil away from the port in 2007-08, which will lead to a loss of traffic.
With this in mind, Haldia is seeking new cargo flows and two new berths are being added, while throughput of existing facilities could be improved by upgrading equipment.
Kolkata Port Trust (KPT) chairman AK Chanda said: “We have an elaborate plan to carry out modernisation at Haldia following the PPP (public private partnership) model where the private party will do bulk of the investment.”
But while the two new berths will supplement capacity by 3m-4m tonnes, the port remains restricted by draught, which is an average of 8.5 metres at the Haldia Dock Complex.