Indus Valley Times

By Pravakar Sahoo

Paradip,Jan,26 :Republic Day was celebrated with pump and gaiety by Paradip Port Authority Shri P.L. Harandh, Chairman, PPA unfurled the National Flag. Addressing on the occasion, he said that Paradip Port achieved yet another 100 Million Metric Tonnes (MMT) of cargo handling sixth year in a row. It once again repeated the feat by crossing the 100 MMT mark in succession and achieved cargo throughput of 100.22 MMT till 9th January in the current fiscal. Notably, last year the coveted mark of 100 MMT was achieved on February 18th 2022. Thus by, the record was achieved in 40 days in advance i.e in 284 days in current fiscal against 324 days last financial year by exhibiting 17 % growth in total cargo throughput till date.

The Port is poised to set all time record cargo handling of more than 130 MMT in current fiscal. Various system improvement measures, introduced by the port during this year, fuelled growth. Coastal Thermal Coal handling has shown a remarkable 58.11% growth in comparison to previous fiscal and it also constitutes about 31.56% of total cargo volume handled at the Port. Paradip port is emerging as a coastal shipping hub of the country and has plans even to coastal ship thermal coal to power houses, located in Rajasthan, UP and Haryana.

Capacity expansion, port modernisation and enhancing the port connectivity has been the success mantra for Paradip Port. The port has added 55 MMTPA of Capacity including 30 MMTPA of berth mechanisation in the recent 5 years. Presently the Port capacity stands at 279 MMTPA, the highest among Major ports. The Port has recently signed Concession Agreement with M/s Jindal Paradip Port Limited for development of 25 MMTPA Western Dock Project, construction for which will commence shortly. This will take the Port capacity beyond 300 MTPA upon its completion. This Western Dock project will enable the port to handle fully laden Cape size Vessels requiring draft upto 18 mtrs. This will bring economy of scale to the profitability of the customers. Over 80 MTPA capacity addition projects are in pipeline to be awarded by FY 2030. Looking beyond it, the Port envisions to take its capacity to over 500 MTPA by the Amrit Kaal 2047.

Going ahead, the Port has laid down sustainable eco-friendly development as the forward strategy to success. Along with it framework have been laid upon to reduce pollution, implement waste management and recycling of dredge material at the port. Several green initiatives are underway at the Port such as increasing the port power usage to solar energy, adopting to multi-clean fuel vehicles such as LNG and electric vehicles in the port, dust and pollution control as a part of corporate environment responsibility (CER) and driving greenification of the port by maintaining One Million tree coverage by 2025. In future the Paradip Port is destined to not only be a Mega Port but also a Clean & Green Port with the Government led push such as Sagarmala & GatiShakti.

·  or staff welfare, insurance coverage has been provided to over 900 employees and 800 contract workers giving coverage of Rs.5 lakhs for natural death.

·  Constructions of 147 residential quarters have been planned for accommodation of Port employees and in Phase 1, for 91 quarters, tender will be floated soon.

·  Induction of 3 more Road Sweeping Machines to the existing fleet of 02 nos. for maintaining cleanliness in township area.

·  STPs have been awarded during recently concluded Special Campaign 2.0 run by the Union Govt. as one of the best sewerage management system.

·   For Fishermen community, the Port planed to undertake modernization of Fishing Harbour with Rs. 100 crore under PM Mastya Sampad Yojana

Recently, the Port has rolled out National Logistics Portal Marine, which is a single window access to information and services those are electronically delivered to all the agencies. It will help exporters and importers to exchange documents seamlessly and transact business in a transparent & quick manner. It is the first of its kind to provide B2B and B2G services to marine trade stakeholders.

 Thereafter, Shri Haranadh awarded prizes to winners of various competitions held among local school children & Officers and employees of various departments, who have excelled in their respective work area. Later on Shri A.K.Bose, Dy.Chairman awarded winner and Runners up Trophies to the marching contingents. An exhibition cricket match was held among PWD employees of the Port and in the evening inter-school dance competitions on patriotic theme were held among school children at Jayadev Sadan.