A vision -Will it be true

I have got opportunity to see several world class ports like Hong Kong , Singapore , Rio-de Janeiro, Yokohama, Nagoya to name a few, while sailing with my husband. Those ports are not only advanced in infrastructure, they are very well managed and well equipped to meet the fastest growing modern shipping market. In India, except JNPT at Mumbai, I found none of the ports are comparable to those high tech ports. It’s been an irony that having such a vast coastline of about 7516.6km, we are so much trailing behind. Even a tiny country like Singapore which does not have even an open sea has transformed itself into busiest seaports and is regarded by business travelers around the world as the “Best Business Destination”. It has developed itself as one of the powerful financial and industrial sectors by making business friendly laws for easy cargo transition and works as a huge cargo depot for its speedy clearance method. But it was really upsetting when I visited “Paradip port”, the only port belong to my own state, Orissa. Even though, having a long coast line and gifted with number of finest seafarers and Master Mariners adorning several prestigious positions, Paradip is so ignored.

Paradip port in Latitude 20º 15.94’N and Longitude 086º 40.85’E,is situated 210 nautical miles south of Calcutta and 260 nautical miles North of Visakhapatanam is one of the 12 major ports of India, established in 1965. Even though it is enlisted as a major port, compare to other ports in India its development is very slow and to become a world class port it may take several years from today. In spite of declaration by the Govt. of Orissa to develop it as a Special economic zone and the proposed plan to set up an industrial park here the port has not marked any development so far.

Paradip has been complied with few facilities- for transportation of bulk cargo like iron ore and coal from Kendujhar belt of Orissa ,the Port is well connected with Broad Gauge Railway System of the South Eastern Railway. The Port is served by National highway No. 5-A. Paradip port has a mechanized loading plant at iron ore berth to load coal and iron with a admissible berth range from 11.0 to 13.0 mtrs and can accommodate maximum size of vessels of 50,000 to 70,000 DWT. This is the only welcome step that is available in Paradeep port. The fertilizer berth is designed as the captive berth for M/s. Paradip Phosphates Ltd., to handle bulk and liquid cargo by fully mechanised means. The stack yard close to cargo berth can accommodate Containers. The containers are to be discharged by the ship's own cranes/derricks or by the wharf cranes on the berths. There are four wharf cranes of a capacity of 13.2 Mt each. The Port Authorities plan to encourage handling of containers to cater to the needs of containers to the needs of exporters/importers located in the Port's hinterland. The container handling facilities at the Port are proposed to be privatised. The berth for handling container vessel and necessary space for container handling yard and CFS will be provided by the Port. At present 2,20,300 sq. m. of open stacking area is available inside the port for storage of more than 13 lakh tons of different cargo. These stack yards are connected with Rail and Road. Additional stack yards of over 1, 00,000 sq. m. are soon to be commissioned. The Port has its own Railway system. The route length is 6.8 Km. and track length is 36 km. At present, there are 7 nos. of Locomotives. Adequate supply of water to ships is available. Limited bunkering facilities are available from Indian Oil Corporation. The Port has a slip way along with workshop for repair and maintenance of Port Crafts and barges. There is a well equipped Central Workshop for repair and maintained of Port equipment. This workshop can undertake repair jobs for ships, in case of need. Below is the data comprising the cargo handling capacity of the port

Available through the agent
Average loading/ discharging rates Tons/Day
Chrome Ore
3000
Coal
5000
Iron & Steel
3000
Food Grains
1000
Fertilizers
1000
Other General Cargo
800

The port handles around 9 million tones of thermal coal-coastal exports to Tuticorin, Chennai, Ennore for the coal fired power plants of Tamilnadu State Electricity Board . The coal is mined primarily in Talcher and IB river mines in Orissa.

The strategic position of Paradeep port has got ample scope to develop it as a world class port like that of Singapore , Hongkong , Dampier in Australia, Saldanha Bay in South Africa or as Tuborou of Brazil. Instead of using the western Indian ports it can be used as a gate way to exporting inland cargos to South East Asia, Japan and Australia.

Right now, the Port has an artificial lagoon type harbour protected by two rubble mound "Break waters" and approached by the dredged channel. The North break-water is 538 meters long on the North Eastern side of the Port and the south break-water is 1217 meters long on the South Eastern side. There are total 13 berths and entrance channel is about 2.0km and minimum depth is about 12.8m and width of the channel being 160m.The geography of Paradip port is very convenient to develop new jetties and the Bay of Bengal has enormous areas to create anchorage area for ships waiting in the outer harbour and also ship to ship operation (STS) operation of tanker to lighter cargo as done in Singapore straits, Hongkong, Muscat and also in Kakinada for different types of ships.

Like Paradeep Phosphates Ltd, other companies like NYK, Mitsui O.S.K Lines , Mobil, Shell etc. can be tendered to construct their own Jetties like they have done it in Singapore where they have their own jetties and own area of operation and were given every freedom to handle in the port premises itself .
A container berth has not yet been developed properly. In Yokohama, in Singapore and Honkokong the use of big Gantries speeds up the container handling very fast , whereas Paradip port is still remains in the stone’s age. So far no action has been taken. It can be speeded up by advertising and policy changes by the Administration to attract foreign investors.
In this area the port should have facility for bunkering. If it is not possible bunkering barges can be introduced to make it available when the ship is in anchorage.

Pilotage is compulsory here. But no night navigation facilities are available so far. But this can be introduced to make port operational 24hrs like that of any advanced port like Singapore and Hongkong.

The port suffers from very poor rail connectivity. The rail connecting the port to South Eastern Railways is single line, which leads to substantial delay and hampers fast movement of goods. This is further compounded by the nature of the –black cotton soil, over which the line has been built. It leads to need for constant repair of the line, further slowing down traffic many times in a year. South Eastern Railways has already initiated a doubling the line from Cuttack, the business hub of Orissa, to Paradip,a distance of around 100km.Also being implemented is the doubling of Talcher to Cuttack at a cost of 90crores,which could substantially increase thermal coal exports to south India.

Iron Ore exports from the port is also affected because the mines are located at a rail distance of nearly 650kms.- a factor that significantly reduces the competitiveness of iron ore exports from Paradeep. A new rail line project expected to nearly halve the distance, has been significantly delayed as expected. It is very essential these infrastructure developments are taken in war footing so that Paradeep doesn’t loose out revenue with respect to competitiveness.

The mineral rich Orissa State has got enormous amount of iron ore bauxite, coal manganese, and chrome ore charge chrome hard coke, limestone, Ferro manganese etc. Apart from minerals, Orissa produces food grain in abundance. Keeping an eye to it, this port can be developed as a world class bulk cargo port with latest machinery for loading up of the verity of cargo.

The Port imports around 2 million tonnes of petroleum products on behalf of HPCL for distribution in the hinterland. The products are imported at Visakhapatnam and then transshipped to Paradip. Previously, IOC was planning a 9-12 million tones refinery at Paradip. The project also envisaged a captive jetty in Paradip for import of crude as well as petroleum products. Given the current glut in refining capacity in the country, the project has been put on hold. We are quite optimistic about renewal of the project in future given the substantial investment already made. However, it is difficult to predict a future date, and would depend largely on oil sector dynamics. Orissa Government Administration was very keen on this project and was ready to give all sorts of logistic supports to oil companies. Even the present chief minister Mr.Naveen Pattanaik is very keen for the construction of the oil Jetty in Paradeep.

Compare to other ports of India the land cost is very less in Orissa and for ware houses building , creating container depot, car carrier private berths within the port areas will be very cheap. The cheap labour is another plus point in this place. So stevedoring can be done in much less price. Only thing is to provide technical know how to these labourers to handle the cargo.

In the wake of the rapid globalization and opening of the economy by the Indian Government in recent years, the ports should have opened up to attract foreign investments to develop new jetties and infrastructures to make the port same standard as that of in Singapore and Hong Kong. This port has all the prospects to be developed as a big bulk cargo handling port and so also oil and LPG handling port. Even if the growth for the year 2001-02 was 6.18% and port handled about 44 million tones that year, there is a lot of room for improvement to make this major port, a World class port. Presently it’s regarded as a Bulk cargo port only port handles about 80% of bulk cargo, 9% liquid bulk, and others as 11%..

Orissa is a land of vast cultural heritage with historical monuments, vast mangroves and rain forests, wild life, beautiful sandy sea shores to beautiful national parks of Similipal. This state has to offer vast array of subjects of tourist interest to attract foreign tourists .Looking at the growing popularity of cruise liners few ferry Jetties can be developed to attract the cruise liners to make it a hub in orissa like they are projecting Pattaya, Singapore, Bangkok etc..

Orissa has got his own glorious maritime history and has its name among the front runners in maritime trade in ancient times as it had its trade relations with countries like Java, Sumatra and Borneo. Till today every Oriya celebrates the “Boita Bandana” Festival i.e.,the bidding farewell to the Oriya sailors or the “sadhavas” with their “boitas” means the small wooden ships for sailing on the auspicious morning of Kartik Purnima. If ancient Orissa has such a rich maritime history then why can’t it be successful in the modern world in the present day context? A little paradigm shift in thinking, impetus and a small policy decision can make many Oriya sailors’ dream, like that of us, come true.

. The development of Paradip port will not only open up new job prospective but also it will open up the available resources like its art and crafts, precious and semiprecious stones, stone carvings and also will be instrumental in promoting travel and tourism. At one time our very famous Chief Minister of Orissa late Mr. Biju Pattanaik who tried his best to make this Port ,a World Class Modern Port, which was one of his dreams of that time. What we need is a political will by the Central Govt and of course Ministry of Shipping whose jurisdiction the Port is under. We still hope that Ministry of Shipping can take some measures which can make Paradip, a world class port.
(2045 words)


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