The Rs 2,460 crore Dhamra port in Orissa will be ready for comercial activities in the next two months. "The port on the east coast will be ready to receive liners by April 2010 as scheduled originally," said a spokesperson of Dhamra Port Corporation Ltd. (DPCL). "Almost 85% of the port construction work is over by now," he added.
The DPCL, a 50:50 joint venture of L&T and Tata Steel, began the port project work in April 2007. Dhamra port is the first private sector port in the state.
The DPCL has prepared a master plan to set up 13 berths enbling the port to handle more than 100 mtpa of dry bulk, liquid, break bulk and container cargo. However, during phase-I, DPCL is building two fully mechanized berths of 350m each with a handling capacity of 27 mtpa along with backup facilities for handling imports of coking coal, steam coal, limestone and export of iron ore.
The 18 km long channel of the port and berths are being designed for draught of 18 mt capable of handling cape size vessels upto 180000 DWT.
DPCL is building a 62 km single rail track from Dhamra to Bhadrak on the main Howrah-Chennai line.
The first ship carrying project cargo from Shanghai berthed at Dhamra Port jetty on Monday. The Chinese vessel, ZHENHUA – 11, used the 18 km long DPCL channel in the sea to reach the port jetty.
The ship is carrying a ship loader and two ship unloaders for the port.