The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Heavy demand for bookings at Krishnapatnam port

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Friday, Jul 11, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Heavy demand for bookings at Krishnapatnam port

N. Rahul

HYDERABAD: Cargo booking offices at the Krishnapatnam port in Nellore district are flooded with requests for loading and unloading operations ahead of the port’s inauguration by United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi on July 17.

There is a heavy demand for ‘calling’ at the port where two state-of-the-art ship unloaders and one ship loader imported from Germany have been installed, said K.V. Brahmananda Reddy, Special Secretary, Infrastructure and Investments (Ports).

Third port

The machinery can unload 3,000 tonnes an hour and load 1,500 tonnes an hour. There are also two mobile cranes, stackers and reclaimers, according to Mr. Brahmananda Reddy. Krishnapatnam will become the third non-major port to be operational in the State after Kakinada and Ravva.

Cargo movement from ports is expected to go up substantially after its commissioning as it can unload up to 60,000 tonnes a day.

Anchorage operations

Till 2007-08, the port’s activities were confined to anchorage operations of two million tonnes per annum. Another 20 million tonnes was handled at the deep water and anchorage port at Kakinada and the port at Ravva.

In contrast, Visakhapatnam, the only major port in the State, handled 65 million tonnes of cargo last year.

Ms. Gandhi will dedicate to the nation Phase I of the project which has been built at a cost of Rs. 1,200 crore. It has two berths to handle coal and one each for iron ore and general cargo. All the berths are ready for operations. They have a combined capacity to handle up to 25 million tonnes an year.

Krishnapatnam is a deep water and all weather port developed on build-operate-share-transfer basis in public-private partnership mode between the government and the C.V.R. Group promoted by Navayuga Engineering Company.

The construction of the port has triggered development of power projects with a total installed capacity of 7,500 MW.

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