INDIA – Yesterday saw the arrival of the MV ‘Zhen Hua 11’ at the new port of Dhamra on the east coast of the country. The ship, which sailed from China on the 22nd January was delivering the 5000 tonne per hour capacity ship loader and 2800 tonnes per hour unloader which will start to offload from the vessel today and which are said to be the largest such units in the world. Together they will form the first tranche of dockside equipment for loading and discharging vessels.
Situated between Haldia and Paradeep, the port at Dhamra will be the deepest port of India with a draught of 18 meters, which can accommodate super cape-size vessels up to 180,000 DWT. The plan provides for 13 berths, capable of handling more than 83 million metric tonnes per annum of dry bulk, liquid bulk, break bulk and containerized cargo. A new 62 kilometre rail freight link to carry shipping containers and bulk goods is also planned to join the main Howrah to Chennai line.
Dhamra is situated up an 18 kilometre channel and has been criticised heavily by Greenpeace as a danger to the rare olive Ridley Turtle as a direct threat to the creatures’ environment. The facts have been hotly disputed by the Dhamra Port Company Limited (DPCL) which is a fifty/fifty joint venture of L&T and Tata Steel who have been granted an initial lease by the Government of Orissa for 34 years to operate the facility.
Photo:- MV ‘Zhen Hua 11’ laden with ship loader/unloader last year.
