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Santanu Sanyal

Kolkata Port Trust's plans to create an all-weather lighterage facility at Saugor island are mainly targeted at boosting the throughput of thermal coal by about 1.5 million tonnes annually. Once the proposed facility starts functioning satisfactorily, there will be no need for thermal coal vessels to call at Paradip for topping up. However, there are several ifs and buts before Saugor can hope to handle more traffic.

KOLKATA Port Trust (KPT) proposes to create an all-weather lighterage facility at Saugor island by installing specialised mooring buoys. The project, proposed to be executed this fiscal at an estimated Rs 10 crore, is mainly targeted at boosting the throughput of thermal coal by about 1.5 million tonnes (mt) annually, over and above the present 3 mt entirely handled at Haldia.

Right now thermal coal vessels, nominated for Haldia dock by the Poompuhar Shipping Corporation by the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board, can load an average 30,000 tonnes each because of the draft restriction in the Hooghly river. An average 8.5-metre-draft is available at Haldia.

At Tuticorin, which is the unloading port for thermal coal loaded at Haldia, an average draft of 10.75 metres is available. To avoid deadfreighting, the additional quantities are required to be loaded to conform the balance draft of 2.25 metres. Therefore, the vessels go to Paradip, a sea port with a bigger draft, for what is called topping up.

At Saugor, according to KPT sources, 10-10.5 metres draft will be available on an average. This means that thermal coal vessels, after being loaded at Haldia, will be able to do the balance loading at Saugor without going to Paradip.

It might be noted that KPT already handles cargoes such as logs, pulses, sugar, rapeseed and maize at Saugor, the volume being around 1.5 lakh tonnes annually. Since the island is not properly connected to the mainland by road and bridges, the lighterage operation — discharge of cargo from ships into barges — is undertaken for evacuation purpose. The port authorities even undertook ship-to-ship discharge (from the mother to the daughter vessel) of crude at Saugor and the volume was as several lakh tonnes in a particular year.

Therefore, thermal coal loading at Saugor has to be by way of barge-to-ship operation. Large barges have to load thermal coal at Haldia and come to Saugor for a second round of loading into large coal vessels for topping up.

Once this is a regular feature, the need for thermal coal vessels calling at Paradip for topping up will not be there anymore. There is another point why Paradip may not be the most preferred port.

With the commissioning of the mechanised handling facility, Paradip has become a costly port as the per tonne cost of handling thermal coal at the mechanised berth is over Rs 200. At Saugor, the rate, it is estimated, will be less than Rs 100 per tonne.

But there are several ifs and buts before Saugor can hope to handle more traffic. First, adequate dredging has to be maintained to achieve a draft of 10.5 metres on most days of the year. As it is the lighterage operation there cannot be undertaken throughout the year, the area being susceptible to gales and storms.

Next, the right types of barges have to be identified. To load thermal coal at Haldia, 5,000-10,000 tonnes capacity barges will be needed. Inquiries reveal that such barges could be arranged provided there is firm cargo inducement.

Finally, KPT has to adopt a professional approach to the collection and dissemination of data on hydrographic and river survey studies to help the users of the proposed facilities at Saugor correctly decide the types of vessels to be used, cargoes handled and the number of operational days, etc. The present situation leaves much to be desired.

Once the proposed lighterage facility starts functioning satisfactorily, KPT, according to informed sources, might even consider installing more mooring buoys to augment the facilities.

A study by the Indian Institute of Port Management suggests that in addition to thermal coal, the proposed facilities, if created at Saugor, could handle an additional 1.5 million tonnes of traffic comprising items such as logs, pulses, petcoke, metcoke and edible oil.

However, barge owners are not convinced of KPT's earnestness in having the mooring buoys constructed. At a recent meeting with barge-owners, the port authorities urged them to undertake trial operations on their own in October. The barge owners were told to organise the right vessels, identify cargoes to be handled, find their shippers and negotiate their rates. Only if the trial run proves successful will the port authorities consider initiating necessary steps to have the mooring buoys installed. The barge owners, it is learnt, wanted the port authorities with them in all these exercises. However, KPT, according to sources close to the barge owners, was not too keen on such partnerships.

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