Kolkata Port Trust to attract private sector for HDC expansion

Kolkata: Private players would contribute a bulk of the investment for expanding capacity at the Haldia Dock Complex (HDC) of the Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT) by 25-30 million ton in the next 5 years.

KoPT has targeted to enhance the cargo volume at Haldia by 25-30 million ton in the next 5 years and most of the investment needed for this capacity addition will come from the private players, A K Chanda, chairman of KoPT said.

According to the National Maritime Development Programme, about Rs 55,000 crore would be invested in capacity expansion of all major ports by 2012 and of this, Rs 40,000 crore would be private investment.

The total capacity addition target for all major ports by 2012 is 546 million ton of cargo, over and above the current capacity of 456 million ton.

KoPT is also banking on the chemical hub that is supposed to come up at Nayachar Island, near Haldia to shore up its cargo volume.

'The chemical hub at Nayachar is desirable as the port needs more cargo. We welcome the development of the chemical hub at Nayachar', Chanda added.

However, Chanda did not give any figure on the cargo growth following the establishment of the chemical hub, adding that it would depend on the scale of the projects to be set up and also the composition of the cargo.

The KoPT chairman also sounded upbeat on the storage of cargo at Nayachar.