Dry bulk capacity at India’s Dhamra Port

A major hindrance for India to achieve a sustainable GDP growth rate of 9% is infrastructure deficit, including inadequate port capacity. This is why the Indian shipping ministry is pushing for port capacity expansion from 1.1bn tonnes to 3.5bn tonnes by 2020 when the ports will be required to handle cargo traffic of 2.5bn tonnes.
The extra capacity will help in eliminating queuing up of ships at ports. A shipping ministry official says the fulfilment of this capacity target will require of governments in coastal states to create an ideal condition for private sector companies to build new ports and expand the capacity of the ones they already own. Inarguably, of all the maritime states in India, Gujarat has most to show in port capacity development on the west coast in the private sector. Mundra and Pipavav ports are two examples of successful private initiatives adequately backed by Gujarat government. But as Santosh K. Mohapatra, chief executive officer of Dhamra Port, points out, the eastern states being the country’s mineral hub and also requiring large imports of dry bulk cargoes like coking and non-coking coal and liquid cargoes, it befalls on Orissa with a coastline of 480km across the Bay of Bengal to create port capacity quickly.
Without any fanfare, Dhamra Port, a 50:50 joint venture between Tata Steel, which following the acquisition of Corus became the world’s sixth largest producer of the metal and Larsen & Toubro, India’s leading engineering and construction group was commissioned on 6 May last when a ship with coal and limestone called at the port. Soon, the port will start handling iron ore for exports to be destined mostly for China. Mohapatra informs that in the first phase, the port has built two fully mechanized berths with annual capacity of 25mt (million tonnes). “The challenges are many when you are building a port in remote part of Orissa where the onus is on you to create supporting infrastructure facilities like building 65km rail tracks between Dhamra and Bhadrak to get onto the country’s main railway network, transmission towers and water supply.” Mohapatra loves to stay away from limelight and he is not out courting credit for completing an investment of Rs31bn($626.27m) in the first phase in four years. But in Orissa many big ticket investments like South Korean Posco’s 12mt steel project or Vedanta’s attempts to do mining bauxite mining in Niyamgiri hills and expand alumina refinery at Lanjigarh from 1mt to 5mt are not getting anywhere, thanks to campaigns by civil society and green brigades. “It’s not that my project didn’t face hurdles. But I try to find solutions in my quiet way. This has paid me dividends,” say Mohapatra.
He has to be circumspect, for in the port’s next phase of development, according to the master plan, as many as 11 more berths are to be built. Dhamra will finally have capacity to handle over 100m tonnes of cargoes. Even while some of the berths will be built to handle petroleum products and gas, containerized cargoes, general items from steel products to edible oils, Dhamra finally with five dry cargo berths will focus principally on coal imports and iron ore exports. In fact, at optimum capacity use, Dhamra will be handling dry bulk cargoes in excess of 60mt. Mohapatra will ideally like to complete building the port to its full capacity in another five years. But much will depend on how quickly the port manages to get all the clearances. Dhamra authorities will also keep an eye on the rise in cargo traffic. Located north of mixed cargo Paradip port, which will see its capacity growing to 133mt by 2015, the all weather, deep water Dhamra port finds shelter between the mainland and Kanika Sands islands. The port has built an 18km long channel and the average draught of 18 metres will allow Capesize vessels of up to 180,000dwt to call at the two dry bulk cargo berths, each 350 metres long.
Equipped with “fully mechanized handling facilities, the port will have a discharge rate of 60,000 tonnes a day of coal and a daily load rate of 100,000 tonnes of iron ore. A full rake of 58 N boxes of coal will be loaded in about 1.25 hours and the tippling of a full rake of iron ore is to be completed in approximately 2.50 hours.” The conveyor belt system extends over 6.90km, while the port, in the first stage, is providing storage space of 800,000 metric tonnes for coal and limestone and another 750,000 tonnes for iron ore. While executing the project, Mohapatra took the help of International Union for Conservation of Nature in setting the ideal environmental standards for sea water, the port and its surrounding areas. The mitigation steps taken in consultation with IUCN ensured no disturbances to marine habitats. The idea behind acquiring a 125m-wide corridor from Bhadrak to Dhamra, which can accommodate four rail tracks and four lane road, is to have a dedicated system in place for quick ingress and egress of export and import cargoes.
The port now occupying 800 acres will need extra land of an equal size for supporting the additional 11 berths. According to Mohapatra, land acquisition will not be an issue. Asked if Dhamra like some other ports will be inclined to earmark some berths for captive use by parties, he says, “we will have a flexible approach to berth allotment. But what we don’t want is capacity remaining unused.” What he appears to have in mind is that while a berth may be designated to a client, he would like handle cargoes from other clients when the berth remains idle. The port will have the advantage of a big hinterland including Orissa, Jharkhand, Bihar, Chattisgarh and West Bengal. But Paradip port also draws its custom from these five states. There then will be competition which should improve operational efficiency of both and give value for money for their customers.