Kolkata port logs 12 per cent cargo handling growth in this year

“We have registered a healthy growth of nearly 12 per cent in the first half of the current fiscal. We hope to maintain this momentum and cross the 65-million-tonne mark for the year. The main growth drivers are the resurgence in trade volumes and user-friendly measures taken in recent years,” Kolkata port Chairman Vinit Kumar told reporters on his last day as the port chief.

Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port (SMP), Kolkata handled 30.52 million tonne of cargo in the April-September period of the 2022-23 financial year, registering a 12 per cent growth over the corresponding period last year, an official said on Friday. SMP is targeting a combined cargo throughput of 65 million tonne at its Kolkata and Haldia docks in 2022-23, he said.

“We have registered a healthy growth of nearly 12 per cent in the first half of the current fiscal. We hope to maintain this momentum and cross the 65-million-tonne mark for the year. The main growth drivers are the resurgence in trade volumes and user-friendly measures taken in recent years,” SMP Chairman Vinit Kumar told reporters on his last day as the port chief.

The SMP, Kolkata improved its ranking by a notch to secure the fifth position among the major ports of India.

The port is intending to acquire a high-end solution, currently used by the Antwerp port in Belgium, for the night navigation of ships.

Kumar said the Kolkata port authority has requested the Centre for a G2G (government to government) procurement of the solution from Belgium.
This would facilitate movement of ships in the night, and the project would cost Rs 17-20 crore, he said.

“Senior port officials and pilots have visited the Antwerp port to look at the functioning of the night navigation system. This will be deployed in phases,” Kumar said.

In the first six months of the current fiscal, Haldia Dock Complex handled 22.84 million tonne of cargo, up by 12.75 per cent from 20.26 million tonne in the same period last year.

Kolkata Dock System handled 7.68 million tonne of cargo as compared to 7.063 million tonne in the April-September period of 2021.

The increase in cargo volume was due to the improved handling of crude oil, liquefied petroleum gas, minerals and dry bulk, the official said, adding that at the same time, a declining trend in trade with China due to Covid and scarcity of containers resulted in a 9.45 per cent drop in containerised cargo to 3.44 lakh TEUs (tonne equivalent units) during the April-September period of the year.