August 22, 2008

Work resumes after heavy rainfall at Vizag Port

It is reported that heavy rains as well as the agitation taken up by the Maoists have marginally affected the movement of iron ore for the past few days on the Kirandul to Kothavalasa line between Kirandul and Jadalpur in Visakhapatnam Port. The cargo handling has also been badly hit at the port and normalcy was being restored only on September 24th 2007.

According to the sources, the Vizag port handles 0.18 million tonnes of throughput, but during the past 4 days the throughput had dropped to 70,000 tonnes to 80,000 tonnes. Fertilizer handling was particularly affected and five vessels had to be kept waiting. Oil tankers also could not be berthed.

The problem was also compounded to an extent by the agitation taken up by the Maoists and the movement of iron ore on the Kothavalasa to Kirandul line was partially affected. Iron ore is brought to the Vizag port from the Bailadilla mines through the KK line.