KoPT starts transloading

9 November 2012

biswabrata goswami
HALDIA, 9 NOV: With the ongoing crisis at Haldia port sending out negative signals to industry in the region, the Kolkata Port Trust started transloading operations at Sandheads today in a bid to display the normal resumption of services at the docks.
In a letter, the KoPT has informed, “Efforts made by KoPT for starting of transloading has given fruitful result. Today, double banking operation has taken place at Sandheads for transloading of NTPC coal from Indonesia. M V Western Ehime arrived at Sandheads which is 232 kilometres away from Kolkata port having a draft of 50 metres. The vessel carried 56,435 MT non-coking coal.
“This historically significant success has been achieved due to the concerted efforts of NTPC and Kolkata Port Trust, top management initiative, meticulous planning and untiring effort of marine officers of KoPT”, the communication reads.
The imported thermal coal will be unloaded on barges from the ship waiting at Sandheads and then these barges will be taken to Haldia from where the coal would be transported to the respective plants.
According to a source in the KoPT, had operations not been suspended at berths 2 and 8 of Haldia Dock Complex, the unloading would have taken place there.
"The KoPT management had made several attempts to convince Haldia Bulk Terminals (HBT) Pvt Ltd to resume operations at the two mechanized berths before it decided to quit the Haldia port. Under the circumstances, there wasn’t any option for NTPC but to start unloading cargo from ships at the Sandheads,” the source said.
KoPT has been mulling the idea of transloading general bulk cargo at Sandheads for quite some time now. In fact, NTPC is already making preparations to go in for major transloading of imported thermal coal from ships at the Sandheads and transporting it to Farakka via the inland waterways route. A jetty has already been built at Farakka. Mr Manish Jain, acting chairman of KoPT, said: “M/S Coal & Oil, Dunai is in contractual agreement with NTPC for 15 lakh MT non-coking coal out of which 70 per cent is destined for Haldia. M T STX Mutiara and M V STX Energen are scheduled to arrive at Haldia shortly. Both the vessels are time chartered vessels and programmed to come back mid-December for double banking at Sandheads. Another 3 to 4 Panamax vessels are also on the cards for next operations.”
Showing optimism about the prospects of transloading operations, Mr Jain said: “Cargo of non-coking coal is steadily growing at Haldia. With this steady growth of lighterage operation at Sandheads, KoPT expects to handle more than 3 million tons of non-coking coal by the end of 2012-13. Because of this consequent of lighterage operation, it is expected that the net landed cost of non-coking coal will be reduced substantially”.
“We wish to promote transloading in a big way and have asked importers to consider using the anchorage at Sandheads between October and March, when the weather is fair. We also plan to carry out transloading at Kanika Sands but the issue is caught in a legal wrangle. Barges don't have to enter the port confines at Haldia and can use riverine jetties. This saves time and effort,” a port official said.