India's L&T, Tata Steel to set up box terminal at Dhamra Port

INDIA's biggest engineering company, Larsen and Toubro Ltd (L&T), and the largest steel maker, Tata Steel Ltd, has unveiled plans to establish a container terminal at Dhamra Port in Orissa in a bid to meet growing demand in eastern India for container freight services.

A report by Live Mint Wall Street Journal noted that L&T and Tata Steel are the developer and operator, respectively, of Dhamra Port on the eastern coast of India and is one of its deepest with a depth alongside of 18 metres.

"We have decided to have a container terminal at the port with an initial capacity to handle five lakh standard containers a year," Santosh Mohapatra, chief executive officer of Dhamra Port Co. Ltd was quoted as saying. "The capacity of the terminal will be scaled up to one million standard containers a year according to demand."

L&T and Tata Steel are equal partners in Dhamra Port, which will start operating the first phase of the new cargo handling port by June with a capacity to handle 22 million tonnes of iron ore, coking coal, thermal coal and limestone a year, according to the report.

It said the joint venture has invested INR2,0000 (US$441.05) for developing the first phase of the port that plans to generate business from the states of West Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand.

According to Mr Mohapatra, Dhamra Port officials are considering a proposal to attract a strategic partner to operate the container terminal. "However, this is yet to be finalised," he said.

He said the port master plan provides for the development of 13 berths with a capacity to handle 80 million tonnes of cargo annually.

"Out of this, five berths will exclusively cater to container and other types of clean cargo," he was quoted as saying.

"We want to take advantage of the deep draft in the channel to set up container and liquid cargo handling facilities at the port," Mr Mohapatra added.

Source: www.schednet.com