The proposed floating jetty at Haldia Dock Complex (HDC) of the Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT) is likely to be operational by January.
A floating jetty will allow cargo from larger ships anchored at Sagar Islands to be offloaded at Haldia.
It will allow barges to unload cargo from larger ships anchored at Sagar Islands. The barges will not have to enter the port through the lockgates.
Due to draught constraints, large vessels with capacity loads cannot enter the Haldia dock.
Such ships normally unload a part of their cargo at other ports before coming into Haldia, and this leads to additional cost for the shipper and revenue loss for KoPT.
Currently, transloading operations are carried out at Sagar Island by KoPT.
According to Vinit Kumar, Chairman, KoPT, the floating jetty will allow faster operations at Haldia, apart from adding to the port’s existing capacities.
Accordingly, two (floating) cranes – with a 2.2-mtpa capacity – will be deployed at Sagar Island at ₹66 crore.
“By January, operations at the floating jetty should start. The floating cranes are on the way,” Kumar told BusinessLine. The floating cargo handling facilities at Haldia – which will have a capacity of 2.55 mtpa – will come up at an expected cost of ₹73 crore.
Work orders had been placed in September 2015 and work onshore and marine constructions are in progress.
KoPT sources say, with the floating jetty and cranes in place, the daily cargo handling capacity at Haldia is expected to go up by at least 10,000 tonnes a day. At present, the cargo handling capacity there stands at 3,000 tonnes a day.
Till September this year, the KoPT handled 27.5 mt of cargo traffic, of which the Haldia Dock Complex (HDC) handled a majority of almost 70 per cent or over 19.1 mt.
The Kolkata Dock System (KDS) handled the remaining cargo throughput of 8.4 mt in April to September 2017-18.
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