The Hindu : Front Page : VPT moves to beat competition

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Wednesday, Sep 17, 2008
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VPT moves to beat competition

Santosh Patnaik

VISAKHAPATNAM: Faced with a threat from satellite port coming up at Gangavaram, the Visakhapatnam Port Trust has set in motion the process for mechanised coal handling and upgrading of general cargo berth at Outer Harbour to handle 2,00,000 DWT vessels at an estimated cost of Rs. 413 crores.

The sale of bid documents for qualification began on Tuesday a day after inviting global tenders under Design, Build, Finance, Operate and Transfer (DBFOT) scheme. The Visakhapatnam port, which finished second among all major ports during 2007-08 by handling 64.6 million tonnes after retaining premier port status for a record seven years in a row, at present has 18 berths and one mooring including two BOT berths in the Inner Harbour and eight berths plus one mooring in Outer Harbour. While Inner Harbour caters to ships up to 50,000 DWT, the Outer Harbour handles ships up to 1,50,000 DWT.

A port official said technical evaluation would be done mostly likely in November to shortlist the bids. It will be followed by financial bids.

Ambitious project

The ambitious project primarily consists of unloading, conveying and stacking system and reclaiming and wagon loading system on DBFOT basis for a concession period of 30 years. Mechanisation of coal handling at General Cargo Berth has remained a long-time demand of environmentalists and residents of Old Town due to dust and air pollution. The AP Pollution Control Board has also issued a fiat to VPT to initiate immediate steps for mechanisation.

Once the modernisation project is put in place, unloading of coking coal will be made by grab unloaders/continuous mechanical unloaders and transported by conveyors to the assigned stackyards inside the port and stored using stackers.

The stacked coking coal will be reclaimed by engaging bucket wheel reclaimers and loaded into wagon trains using mechanical wagon loaders. To mitigate environmental pollution, suitable dust control systems will be installed.

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