Kakinada Seaport hopes to attain record cargo throughput

Kakinada: It has been a good year for both the ports in Kakinada, the new deepwater port as well as the old anchorage port, and both have made impressive strides. The new port is being operated by a private consortium and the old one is under the control of the Roads and Buildings Department of the Andhra Pradesh Government.

The Kakinada deepwater port, being operated by Kakinada Seaports Ltd, could achieve the annual target of 12 million tonnes of throughput by February, a month in advance. By the financial year-end, it is likely to cross 13 mt. Roughly half of the cargo was handled at the three berths and the rest was transhipment cargo. Kakinada new port is able to attract more transhipment cargo (crude) than the established major port of Visakhapatnam.

The new port is also handling iron ore, which is the mainstay of Vizag port, and till now it could handle 3 mt.

The old anchorage port too has done well and till now, 27,58,452 tonnes of cargo has been handled at the old port, with rice accounting for 1.27 mt.

According to Capt. Diwakar, port officer, the port may handle 2.82 mt by the end of the financial year, which will be a new record. 'Previously, in 2002-2003, the anchorage port handled a record 23,90,000 tonnes. We have already surpassed it this year.

Apart from the barge owners, the port employees and cargo boat workers, credit should also be given to the local trade for this excellent performance,'' he said.He said till now, 181 ships had called at the anchorage port this year and the number may go up to 200 by the end of the month and the financial year. The port could earn Rs 10.21 crore of revenue till now and it may amount to Rs 11 crore by month-end. That would also be a new record, he added.

Rice bran extractions (1 mt) was another major commodity exported from the old port and muriate of potash (MoP) (5 lakh tonnes) was a major import.