BS reported that the central government has proposed to scale up the capacity of the Paradip port from the present 76 million tonnes per annum to 133 million tonne per annum by 2015 at an estimated cost of INR 3,141.01 crore.

Parliament was told recntly that the proposed expansion would entail the installation of the second and third single point mooring by Indian Oil Corporation Limited at an estimated cost of INR 1,492.33 crore and construction of Southern Oil Jetty at the port, involving an investment of INR 191.01 crore.

Mr GK Vasan minister of shipping said that similarly, the Ministry of Shipping has also planned for the construction of a deep draft iron ore berth, deep draft coal berth and multipurpose berth to handle clean cargo including container at an investment of INR 591.35 crore, INR 479.01 crore and INR 387.31 crore respectively.

Mr Vasan informed Ms Renubala Pradhan, MP from Orissa, that while the SPMs are scheduled to be completed by December 2012, the oil jetty is set for completion by December 2013. Similarly, the three proposed berths proposed to be constructed on the BOT mode are scheduled to be completed by September 30th 2015.

After expansion, the capacity of the port will be increased to 133 million tonnes per annum, when an additional 57 million tonnes per annum capacity would be added. While the capacity of the two SPMs would be 22 million tonnes per annum, the capacity of each of iron ore and coal berths would be around 10 million tonnes per annum, where as the proposed capacity of the multipurpose berth would be around 5 million tonnes per annum. Mr Vasan said that various projects worth INR 10,348.29 crore were under different stages of implementation in various major ports.

Besides the Paradip Port, the projects under construction or implementation in other major ports include
Ennore Port (INR 1,407 crore)
Cochin Port (INR 3,500 crore)
Mumbai Port (INR 1,460.52 crore)
New Mangalore Port (INR 526.03 crore)
Tuticorin Port (INR 381.66 crore)
Mormugao Port (INR 252 crore)
Kandla Port (INR 692.74-crore).

Similarly, the Visakhapatnam port in Andhra Pradesh has five different projects with an outlay of INR 1250.55 crore under implementation and construction.

(Sourced from www.business-standard.com)