India's SAIL-SCI venture to build dry bulk handling facility

The proposed transloading facility in the Bay of Bengal for handling dry bulk cargoes will be created by the SAIL-SCI joint venture, formed recently, according to Mr K Mohandas, Union Shipping Secretary. “This has been agreed in-principle at a high-level meeting in New Delhi today”, Mr Mohandas told Business Line.

The meeting was presided over by the Shipping Secretary himself and attended by, among others, by Mr S.K. Roongta, Chairman of Steel Authority of India Ltd, Mr S. Hajara, Chairman and Managing Directr of the Shipping Corporation of India, and Mr A. Majumdar, Chairman of the Kolkata Port Trust. The Sandheads, the mouth of the Hooghly river, has been identified as the location for starting the operation as early as possible, he said.

This was because, as he explained, the Sandheads fell within the port limits of the Kolkata Port Trust.

Alternative location
The alternative location at Kanika Sands, an island off the Orissa coast, could be considered at a later stage. It might be noted that the operation at Sandheads would not be possible during the monsoon months.

As for the cargo inducement, he said SAIL had promised to handle about six million tonnes of coking coal imports annually once the facility was in place.
Coal imports

Right now, SAIL imports about four million tonnes of coal through Haldia.
However, SAIL must have a captive jetty, preferably a riverine jetty outside the lockgate at Haldia, he observed.

“There has to be an integrated package comprising not only the transloader but also a whole gamut of supporting facilities for the proposed arrangement to succeed”, Mr Mohandas added.

There will be another meeting shortly in Kolkata to take forward the decisions taken at Wednesday's meeting.

Source: www.thehindubusinessline.com