The meeting followed a ceremony in which the Minister laid the foundation stone for construction of the proposed oil terminal and celebrated the inauguration of a 250 metre jetty to accommodate both Indian Oil Company and Coastguard vessels. The jetty can be used as two independent berths and has RoRo capability. The need for speedy turnaround of Coastguard craft was considered a priority due to the current security situation and problems like that of the stricken bulk carrier Black Rose which was fully reported here. The Minister thanked the port authorities for their timely assistance in rescuing the crew of that ship and the clean up which followed.
Deepening of the channel at Paradip means that, with a depth of over 17 metres vessels up to 125,000 DWT can be accommodated. The port has already commissioned a single mooring point to enable discharge of crude oil through the pipeline to the refinery at Haldia. There are further plans to develop more downstream facilities in the region and the Government has been keen to promote these with tax concessions for these and further infrastructure development.
Work on Indian dock facilities continues apace with projects planned or underway at a host of sites around the subcontinent which include Kandia (mooring point), Tuticorin and Indira (bulk handling terminals), Dahej and Gogha (RoRo terminals), Kolkata(river and sea barge transfer terminal facilities)plus numerous other proposals.