Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Limited (APSEZ) has received a letter of award (LOA) for upgrading a berth at Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port (SMP), Kolkata, the only riverine port in the country. The ‘mechanisation and upgradation’ is a requisite under the PM Gati Shakti programme.
APSEZ will mechanise and upgrade berth number-2 at Haldia Dock Complex.
Karyan Adani, and whole-time director and CEO, APSEZ, was personally present on this occasion, besides other senior representatives from APSEZ. “The project of mechanisation of berth no. 2 of Haldia Dock Complex, Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port, Kolkata on PPP mode has been awarded to M/s Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone Limited (APSEZ) on 10.02.2022,” a statement from SMP mentioned.
“The project envisages incorporating environment friendly, fully mechanized with state of the art technology for handling dry bulk cargo,” Vinit Kumar, chairman, SMP, Kolkata, said. The handling facility “will involve unloading from ships via rail mounted mobile harbour crane, conveying by conveyor system, stackers and reclaimer and loading into wagons by rapid wagon loading system with SILO,” the statement adds.
SMP adds that the rapid wagon loading system will reduce the loading time. The complete loading of a full rake will be possible within two hours, and around three hours will be saved per rake. This solution will help in the overall reduction of logistics costs, reduce the turnaround time of vessels and rakes.
The project will have a capacity to handle over 3.74 million tonnes annually. The PPP concessionaire is expected to invest around Rs 298 crore in the project which is expected to get commissioned in the last quarter of financial year 2024-25. The port will have a royalty share of around Rs 75 per metric tonne of cargo.
Karan, also met West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and state chief secretary at Nabanna, the state secretariat, on Thursday, sources said.
Gautam Adani, Chairman, Adani Group, had met Mamata in Kolkata on December 2, last year. “Delighted to meet (official handle tagged), Hon'ble Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Discussed different investment scenarios and the tremendous potential of West Bengal. I look forward to attending the Bengal Global Business Summit (BGBS) in April 2022,” the chairman had tweeted.
The state government is planning to develop a deep sea port at Tajpur around 180 km from Kolkata. This could be of interest to port developers. However, the government is yet to offer an official update on the proposed project and the developer opted for.
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