Bharat Rakshak

Singha wrote:are there any ports in India capable of taking the largest 300m container ships (20,000 TEU?) and draught need of 14m ?

or do they all transfer indian market containers in Jebel Ali or Colombo only?

It is very urgent that Guj, MH, TN, Vizag, Kolkata, Kochi as the "outlets"
of this nation get such large scale ports capable of unloading 15-20 ships
in parallel each.

Nope.. They do go to Jebel Ali and Colombo onlee. In fact most "Main line" container ships don't visit India at all.. That is part of the reason why the Sri Lankans are opposed to Sethusamudram. They think that Tuticorin will become a viable alternative to Colombo and they will lose a lucrative business.

Among India's ports, Paradeep has one of the best drafts.. and is used mostly for bulk commodity trade..Vizag is good too, being a natural port. Chennai is an artificial port, so has draft limitations.. Kolkota river port, draft restrictions.. Bombay (including JNPT), not enough.. hugely under invested.. Kandla.. Yeah.. the Gujarat govt and Reliance will get it up and running with Han Panda ruthlessness and efficiency.

Lets face it.. Peninsular India really does not have too many options in terms of natural ports to build a Shanghai, Singapore, Jebel Ali like mega port .. The good ones are in Orissa with no decent hinterland for merchandise trade..

Kochi can be a decent port.. But the for Commie trade unions is the Ports are the mother lode and the first areas where they got in.. So no go.

The largest container ship is the Emma Maersk, as far as I know. It has a 11,000 TEU capacity.
link

According to this preso (slide 28 ), Mundra port can handle 8000 TEU ships as of 2003, while JNPT could only handle 4000 TEU vessels at that time. I don't know about present day. Colombo can accomodate 8500 TEU ships. However JNPT now handles more container traffic than Colombo, thanks to fast growth in the last 2 years.

Suraj you are probably right. However it's not that all containers are destined for a single port. Ships come in with a part cargo. They would possibly discharge containers in 5-6 ports at the least. Same with the loading sequence. Container ships are not the biggest ships in the world. Tankers and bulkers are. The biggest ships are hardly able to come into normal ports. Many tanker terminals they have a jetty somewhere where the draught is deep enough and just lay out a long pipe line to shore storage facilities. Similarly with big bulkers they offload many times at anchorages because they are too huge to get into ports. Many areas in the world discharging loading operations on these type of ships is carried out in semi deep waters at anchorages.

TN must work on a panda footing to ensure Sriperumbudur has easy access to a big container port. BLR-CHN corridor can funnel out of this.

this is not optional.

So far the best bets appear to be Rewas Port (18 M draft when commissioned in 2011) and Mundra/Pipavav in Gujarat (16 M draft each).

APJ Bharti, Essar keen to build shipyards in West Bengal.

Shipbuilding companies APJ Bharti Shipyard and Essar have expressed interest in setting up two shipyards in West Bengal.

Principal industry secretary Sabyasachi Sen told media that the representatives of the two companies had made presentations to the state government in this regard.

Each shipyard would require around 400 acres of land, he said, adding that the companies had been asked to identify the plots.

The companies had been also asked to submit rehabilitation packages for the land losers, Sen said. He said that the approximate investment for the APJ Bharti project would be around Rs 2,000 crore.

Essar, however, was yet to submit the financial details. Sen said that the companies would have to directly purchase the required land and the state government would facilitate the process.

emsin wrote:

I remember those days. As kids you would see the same vessels in the outerharbor and see them there for a month or so. But that was such a long time ago, its no way as bad as that now. Its a few days at most (atleast for VPT).

I'm well awate of VPT. Firstly not very big ships come to VPT. MEdium size ones come there. Draft restrictions prevent ships entering into VPT. 2 or 3 coal berths at it's immediate entrance allows only for jetty dumping. So you'll see 2 or max 3 bigs ships at the entrance. Rest the ones either lighten up ouside to go in, or are not too big in tonnage once in.

Unloading usually requires using ships gear because of which charter rates are higher.

These are not good ports Pradeep. You must see Port operations in Japan, China, South Korea, US..Port operations in India are crap.

True. I hope this addressed pronto. Vizag might be a bit of a non-starter with its narrow natural harbor inleft. Needs frequent dredging to maintain draft and also has to be shared with the ENC.

And close to that inlet lays the hull of the PNS Ghazi, still pining for the Vikrant

emsin: It appears you are familiar with the shipping sector. Could you please expound at length about the current capacity for dry and liquid cargo, as well as TEU capacity of various ports, the trends in recent years etc ? I'm also interested in know how containerization is related to the economic profile of imports and exports. Does it typically increase or decrease relative to other means, i.e. dry bulk and liquid cargoes ? Or do they all grow equally in general ?

Thanks in advance.

Suraj wrote..

Could you please expound at length about the current capacity for dry and liquid cargo, as well as TEU capacity of various ports, the trends in recent years etc ?

No Suraj. All i can say. we are inadequate. Tremendous infrastructural development is required to get our facilities up to the mark. Meanwhile consumers have to pay extra. Consider your transport system on land to be 5 times more advanced than port facilities in India today.

I'm also interested in know how containerization is related to the economic profile of imports and exports. Does it typically increase or decrease relative to other means, i.e. dry bulk and liquid cargoes ? Or do they all grow equally in general ?

Containers typically carry Walmart type stuff. Refrigerated containers are more costly, they contain valuable containers. I personally shipped steam generators from Vancouver to South Korea. They are a part of Nuclear plants. Each container was worth more than 40 million US. Yet it also carried thousands others. Refrigerated containers may be stuffed with frozen meat, fish etc of extremeley high value.

Yet container traffic is hardly related to bulk or liquid cargo capacity except as an indice to a nations trading potential both imports and exports. SO there may be a country in Africa just exporting ore, yet hardly any container traffic. Yet countries like China and India and US/ EU of course have loads of container and bulk cargo traffic.

Liquid cargo is if i understand you correctly..related to LNG, LPG, Oil tankers etc..thats mostly middle east outbound. There are also refrigerated fruit juice extract carriers running mostly between South America and US/ Europe. But there is no particular synergy between container and bulk/ tanker cargo. This industry is too vast, too big to be singularly comprehensive.

It is the largest industry in the world in Dollar terms. And it does'nt have the internet.

Suraj wrote: I'm also interested in know how containerization is related to the economic profile of imports and exports. Does it typically increase or decrease relative to other means, i.e. dry bulk and liquid cargoes ? Or do they all grow equally in general ?

Thanks in advance.

Suraj.. Containerization and palletization (goods are not just stuffed in containers, but are palletized to facilitate handling by fork lifts) is a massive productivity improving method.. That is exactly how most civilized countries in the world got rid of the crude manual handling by armies of sweating coolies unloading and loading trucks, ships, whatever.. An image that is still the most common method of cargo handling in India , and beloved to our commies. A nice "eye candy" that screams "EXPLOITATION" and stirs your "conscience" and all the usual chest beating and rhetoric and commie exploitation of "Mudalali Vargam" and "Thozilali Vargam" ."Capitalist Classes" and "Working/Toiling Classes" .

Specifically to answer your question on how it changes with economic growth. Diverse /discrete cargo (also correctly called as break -bulk) is what is "unitized" by containerization /palletization to increase productivity via mechanization in cargo handling. Now that is directly related to merchandise trade (as Emsin correctly pointed out as "Wal Mart" stuff) . As merchandise trade increases, containerization usage simply explodes.

For eg, containerization took off in the 60s and 70s, in Sea borne trade largely to coincide with exports from Asia (Japan and later Asian tigers and in 80s onwards China) to the US.. This is largely merchandise trade (electronics, clothing, toys, etc..etc).

If for eg, India was to export 100,000 tons of "rice" to the US it most probably would do that in dry bulk carriers (just like what happens when we import wheat)..But if exporting braded "Basmati" , it most probably would be pre-packed , palletized and exported in Containers! .

India is not a major "container power" compared to Koreans, Japanese, Chinese and Singapore/Malaysia because our merchandise trade (due to well known problems from socialist years) still is lower than theirs.. That is part of the reason why Indian ports dont have the kind of container infrastructure in those countries .. Indian ports are largely (or until very recently maybe..my exp is over 15 years ago before going off to Massa) geared towards bulk imports (oil, fertilizer, raw materials) and exports of bulk commodities (iron ore mostly) and not geared towards merchandise.

In fact, Mundra /Pipapav and the new Rewas that folks in this forum mentioned are not something I knew of until I read here .. These are really good developments and I am sure are light years removed from the sclerotic, crusty, babu and "sweating/toiling labor class" infested Charles Dickens like leftovers from the 19t century, but rather world class ports with technolgy, productivity and management capability to give the Pandas , Japs, Koreans , Europoort and the Americans a run for their collective monies..

The problem I see is that while these will happen in Gujarat (and provide a very convenient outlet to West Coast and North India), it is too close to Pakistan and is vulnerable.. And plus it is too far away from the South.. You definitely need a mega port for the Bangalore /Chennai .. Mangalore can become a decently sized port as well... Maybe kakinada too.. Orissa is too far away and hinterland has just bulk stuff like Iron Ore and coal.. Port in West Bengal.. give up simply because it will be another commie infested 19th century hell hole.

emsin wrote:iquid cargo is if i understand you correctly..related to LNG, LPG, Oil tankers etc..thats mostly middle east outbound.

Very true.. However, "speciality" / high value/ low volume liquids do get carried in liquid containers , standarized to the ISO TEU.

emsin and vina, thanks. I was looking for just such a detailed response about the profile of goods being traded. It is obvious that our port capacity is grossly inadequate - I posted in the economy thread over a year ago with a data reference indicating well over $1 billion in export losses just at JNPT due to capacity constraints there about three fiscals ago. Add up all the ports and take into account costs incurred in unloading (imports) and it'll be much more. And back then our trade volume was half what it is now.

vina wrote:

The problem I see is that while these will happen in Gujarat (and provide a very convenient outlet to West Coast and North India), it is too close to Pakistan and is vulnerable.. And plus it is too far away from the South.. You definitely need a mega port for the Bangalore /Chennai .. Mangalore can become a decently sized port as well... Maybe kakinada too.. Orissa is too far away and hinterland has just bulk stuff like Iron Ore and coal.. Port in West Bengal.. give up simply because it will be another commie infested 19th century hell hole.

Mangalore Port has developed quite a lot but its biggest competition in Cochin.
Cochin made sure that Mlore did not get a captive market

I actually was working with a company to add RFID and GPS tracking to containers, part of Massaland's Homeland Security Initiative. One big problem in the distribution/logistics business is the question: Where the hell is my goods? There is a massive problem with lost/orphaned containers. These are eventually "found" but the elapsed time factor goes against good business acumen. Homeland security Massaland wants to track the container movement from source to destination (if landing in US).

At last count Indian container traffic volume was 1/5 of Han Panda Friend. Here is another opportunity for the laggards to implement the slogan 10 X in 10 yrs.

vina wrote:

Suraj wrote:
In fact, Mundra /Pipapav and the new Rewas that folks in this forum mentioned are not something I knew of until I read here .. These are really good developments and I am sure are light years removed from the sclerotic, crusty, babu and "sweating/toiling labor class" infested Charles Dickens like leftovers from the 19t century, but rather world class ports with technolgy, productivity and management capability to give the Pandas , Japs, Koreans , Europoort and the Americans a run for their collective monies..

The problem I see is that while these will happen in Gujarat (and provide a very convenient outlet to West Coast and North India), it is too close to Pakistan and is vulnerable.. And plus it is too far away from the South.. You definitely need a mega port for the Bangalore /Chennai .. Mangalore can become a decently sized port as well... Maybe kakinada too.. Orissa is too far away and hinterland has just bulk stuff like Iron Ore and coal.. Port in West Bengal.. give up simply because it will be another commie infested 19th century hell hole.

Vina, for your information Mundra is developed by Adani Group which is upbeat in Gujarat these days and known as new business people.

http://www.portofmundra.com/

Strategic location
The Port is strategically placed with respect to the northern and western hinterland, to which it is well-connected by both railways and roadways. This area generates nearly 70% of India s containerized international trade. The Port has privately developed a 64 km railhead which is connected to the nearest railhead at Adipur.The Bhuj airport and Kandla airstrip are a short drive away. The port has its own 1900 meters aerodrome equipped with latest navigational instruments for landing of private executive jets.

In-house facilities

The port is an end-to-end comprehensive service provider with state-of-the-art facilities including:
Mechanized bulk handling
Packaging of cargo
Closed and open storage for bulk cargo
Liquid tank farm area
Cleaning and sorting of cereals
Privately developed road,rail network and a private airstrip

In-zone options
An exclusive SEZ with in-zone Port and Container Terminal: Mundra SEZ has an in-zone port with one of the biggest draft in the country that can berth Capesize vessel. The SEZ has its own container terminal and Container Freight stations. As a result, units operating in the SEZ can directly ship their Cargo from their factory floors to overseas market without any need for transshipment. This in zone facilities reduce freight cost and transit time, thereby improving profitability.

Single window clearance
The port operates with a single window clearance system of management which ensures swift clearance and rapid movement of cargo and quick turn around time.

Development plans
The Port management has ambitious plans of increasing capacity to 100 MT by 2015.Long term development plans include additional berths and backup facilities that will eventually take the Port to its projected target in the next 10 years.Waterfront for an additional 14 berths basin, 2 dedicated coal jetties which can handle Capesize vessels, Berths for handling speciality chemicals, also more berths planned for handling LNG/CNG/PNG are in pipeline.

I believe if these ports (Hazira etc.) are located in the view of jamnagar Reliance refinery. Not sure though.

[quote]Indian shipping tonnage crosses 9 million GT

17 Sep, 2007, 0503 hrs IST, TNN

Shipping tonnage growth under the Indian flag is zooming. It has notched a record of 9.07 million gross tonnage (GT) as on August 31, 2007, according to figures released by the shipping ministry. This figure could well surpass the targeted 12 million GT by the end of the eleventh Five-Year Plan period.

Analysts assign this phenomenon to the buoyant freight market conditions, which catalyses the pace of growth. This was because there was significant tonnage increase of 0.48 million GT during the last five-month period alone, which has gone up from 8.59 million GT as on April 1, 2007 to 9.07 million GT on September 1. In comparison, there was only an increase of 0.13 million GT during the last fiscal, starting from April 1, 2006 (8.46) to April 1, this year (8.59). Tonnage during the ten-year period from April 1996 to April 2006 the increase was only 1.37 million GT. (On April 1, 1996 it was 7.10 and in April last year it was 8.47).

There are two factors responsible for this trend,â€

For a nation with a long long costline, India has a few problems. Deep draft is one major problem. Europe, US, even China do not have such problems. So for a major economy like India how could we transport goods from one area to another cheaply by sea, without the services of heavy dredging equipment and ships? One way possible IMO is not by heavy dredging thats say a continuos process for ports like Haldia..but by designing ships with detachable hulls.

Remember places like Haldia ships have to wait for tide then move in. Same with ships coming out of port. The channel to deep sea is extremely long and takes around 12 hours to clear. Pilotage charges, dredging charges are ultimately passed onto the consumer.

For precisely that reason i worked out a hydraulically detachable ship design. The idea is detaching the accommodation and machinery spaces from the hull, safely in deep water conditions. The hull part can be later towed for the rest of the journey. Interestingly the design for the hull can be varied for specified draft requirements. So say Tata Steel imports 40,000 t of coal, the ship need'nt wait a week in anchor and then enter into Haldia to discharge. Extremely expensive process that last stage. Instead it detaches it's cargo deep sea which can be towed to a nearby jetty where there are cranes and road connectivity. This way you can activate nost of the coastline rather than just a few identified ports dependent on dredging. Meantime interestingly a hull ready with cargo for XYZ place can be fixed deepwaters itself and the vessel is underway in hours after noth discharging and loading it's new cargo. This will avoid a lot of downtime and expenses in bulk trade.

Essar Shipping places $210 mn orders for bulk carriers with ABG Shipyard.

The Ruias-owned Essar Shipping & Logistics (ESLL) has placed a mega order for constructing six bulk carriers with ABG Shipyard. The Mumbai-based shipbuilder will construct six geared Supramax bulk carriers. The contract is valued at $210 million.

The vessels — with a length of 190 metre, beam width of 32.26 metre and 54,000 deadweight tonnage (dwt) — will be built at an estimated cost of $35 million each. These ships will be delivered between December 2009 and March 2011, and will be fitted with 36-tonne cranes with the grab.

“It’s a strategic investment in line with Essar’s future plans. The dry bulk market is hot now, and it is going to remain attractive for a few more years,â€

pradeepe wrote:

emsin wrote: I'm well awate of VPT. Firstly not very big ships come to VPT. MEdium size ones come there. Draft restrictions prevent ships entering into VPT. 2 or 3 coal berths at it's immediate entrance allows only for jetty dumping. So you'll see 2 or max 3 bigs ships at the entrance. Rest the ones either lighten up ouside to go in, or are not too big in tonnage once in.

Unloading usually requires using ships gear because of which charter rates are higher.

These are not good ports Pradeep. You must see Port operations in Japan, China, South Korea, US..Port operations in India are crap.

True. I hope this addressed pronto. Vizag might be a bit of a non-starter with its narrow natural harbor inleft. Needs frequent dredging to maintain draft and also has to be shared with the ENC.

And close to that inlet lays the hull of the PNS Ghazi, still pining for the Vikrant

Vick had posted this nice picture of INS Jalashwa entering Vizag inner harbor in the mil forum. Cross posting here. Puts the width of the harbor enterance in perspective.

INS Jalashwa

interesting the Jalashwa retains the Phalanx CIWS fwd of the bridge.

is Kakinada suitable for a large naval base ?

emsin wrote:One way possible IMO is not by heavy dredging thats say a continuos process for ports like Haldia..but by designing ships with detachable hulls.

Heard of barge carriers ships ? It is like this: the ship carries barges . The ship itself is a semi submersible , which takes on water ballast, goes under the barges and lifts them out of the water and vice versa.. I though that Essar had a couple of them to ship iron ore out of Goa .. I think the iron ore is shipped down river in barges and then loaded on to these kind of ships. (something like the heavy lift ship that too the USS Cole back to the US) .

The problem with these kind of ships is that you make each ship that much more expensive. It is a question of do you put the investment costs on the shipowner or do you invest that in creating infrastructure (something like septic tank and generators per individual home vs sewer system and public utility) .. It makes sense to invest in these ships if India had an extensive river /canal system, where goods from ships can be taken deep inland , something like Rhine / Ruhr or better still the Yangtze kind of thing.. However the closest we have, the Ganga, is barely navigable, and that too , only upto Allahabad at best.

Notice that these kinds of ships are next to useless outside Indian waters, where there is developed port infrastructure.

Far better to invest in getting the ports upto scratch and build cost competitive ships .. JMT

Heard of barge carriers ships ? It is like this: the ship carries barges . The ship itself is a semi submersible , which takes on water ballast, goes under the barges and lifts them out of the water and vice versa.. I though that Essar had a couple of them to ship iron ore out of Goa .. I think the iron ore is shipped down river in barges and then loaded on to these kind of ships. (something like the heavy lift ship that too the USS Cole back to the US) .

I am aware of barges being used to transport iron ore to ships anchored semi deep waters off Vasco, but not aware if there are any barge carriers involved here.

My POV was that clean coal requirement in India is going to be very heavy from places like Australia and South Africa..in tens of millions of tonnes per year in the coming decades..if we just consider jetty dumping in already strained port infrastructure i don't think we could cope up. The power plants also would be developiing ina lot of locations along or near coastal regions throughout India. Why not use much vaster stretches of the coast than just a few established points.

Alternatively if we use such ships only along the Indian coast we need just 2 massive dumping jetties East and West Coast and use the barge ships to carry the tonnage along the coast to the nearest respective hinterland. East coast for Australian coal and West for South African.

Remember that transport by sea is much much cheaper still by sea than by rail or road. So even in the alternate plan you have only dredging requirements for 2 areas East and West coasts with heavy loading and unloading capacities. The ships could be unloaded say at Kakinada and bargeships loaded for Haldia, Calcutta, or any other place on E Coast on a continual basis. Private secondary unloading jetties could be anywhere along the coastline..

However since there are no feasiblity studies being conducted on this basis don't conclude i am driving at this option. just put it up for consideration. It may have merit in it IMO.

emsin wrote:I am aware of barges being used to transport iron ore to ships anchored semi deep waters off Vasco, but not aware if there are any barge carriers involved here.

My POV was that clean coal requirement in India is going to be very heavy from places like Australia and South Africa..in tens of millions of tonnes per year in the coming decades..if we just consider jetty dumping in already strained port infrastructure i don't think we could cope up. The power plants also would be developiing ina lot of locations along or near coastal regions throughout India. Why not use much vaster stretches of the coast than just a few established points.

I agree with the basic premise of your argument. However, I am not sure that with a hinterland accessible by via river, it has much value to go in for a barge carrier kind of ship... I think the concept while very good, lost out to container ships , becuause of the greater flexibility of rail and road in servicing hinterland.

Anyways, Uncle has a fleet of exactly the barge carrier kind of ships called Cape F and Seabee classes.. One entire armoured division can be moved across continents at 20 knots in just one of these ships.

Also check out this link for interesting stuff about Uncle's Austral Rainbow and the Indian Navy's involvement in it.

Also check out this on Green Island, scroll down to the bottom to further details.

Also check out this link Cape F.. Shows it actually lifting a barge up .

Vina thanks nice links. I am aware though of the Austral Rainbow recapture by the Indian Navy. I also saw the design at the bottom of the second link. Looks a little complicated. I'm also not surprised the ship ran into distress under moderately rough weather conditions. IMVHO detachable hull ships for bulk cargo can be made much simpler. Here the machinery spaces would be really cramped up. Moreover forward accommodation and aft machinery spaces is not a good concept. Increasing shafting length also leads to increased losses.

SCI to acquire state-of-the-art 10 new ships for $600 mn.

As a part of its tonnage acquisition and expansion plans, Shipping Corporation of India Ltd (SCI) has placed orders for ten new ships aggregating $600 million, a top company official said.

"With a view to augment our fleet capacity, SCI has placed orders for ten new ships at a total capital expenditure of $600 million to be incurred in stages till the delivery of vessels between FY 08 to FY 10," SCI's Chairman, S Hajara, told shareholders at the company's 57th annual general meeting here today.

"The company has placed further orders for six more newbuilding tankers in August 2007. With this the company has an extremely healthy orderbook position with eighteen ships on order-including VLCCs ordered in FY 06," Hajara said.

Hajara pointed out that the company has more acquisitions in the pipeline, which are at advanced stages of materialisation.

The state-of-the-art newbuilding ships, which are being built to the most modern and latest specifications are not only expected to augment the company's fleet but also bring in great improvement in the fleet in terms of quality, Hajara added.

SCI has also taken several initiatives to enhance the economic life and earning potential of some of the existing vessels. It has successfully accomplished conversion of its vessel 'Maharshi Karve' from single hull to double hull tanker. In addition to the upgradation of OSVs, a few more tankers are also being converted from single hull to double hull, he added.

SCI to pump in Rs 3k cr into country’s largest shipyard.

Shipping corporation of India (SCI) has firmed up plans to build the country’s largest shipyard with an investment of around Rs 3,000 crore.

The public sector company would compete with Larson and Toubro (L&T), Korean shipping major STX, Essar, Shapoorji Pallonji and Bharti Shipyard for the two shipbuilding projects that the government plans to float. The company is likely to make a formal announcement in this regard in the next six to eight weeks.

“We are talking to some companies including foreign firms to foray into ship-building. We are likely to finalise the partner in the next six to eight weeks after which we would send expression of interest (EoI) to the shipping ministry. The investment in the proposed venture could go up to Rs 3,000 crore,â€

Vipul:

Thanks for consistently following and updating us about this strategic sector. Are you just interested in shipping or are somehow involved in this sector?

Anant:

No, my work relates to IT-Vity.

http://www.gujaratglobal.com/nextSub.ph ... atype=NEWS
http://www.gujaratglobal.com/nextSub.ph ... atype=NEWS

Govt to invest Rs 10,000 Cr in five new ports

The shipping ministry plans to invest Rs 10,000 crore to set up at least five deep-sea ports in the country during the Eleventh Five Year Plan period. The ministry would be issuing requests for proposal (RFPs) for appointing consultants for developing these ports, reported Business Standard.

These ports which would be developed through the public-private partnership (PPP) mode, comes close on the heels as a part of the recent move of appointing a consultant for setting up a deep-sea port in West Bengal under PPP.

Though this plan is at an early stage, ministry officials say that the government would control the connectivity aspect of the proposed ports. Hence, in case if there are plans to develop rail and road connectivity to these ports, then it would be done by the government. Private companies would be given the task of developing and managing the berths and terminals of the proposed ports.

Currently, none of the 12 major ports in the country have a draft (the depth of a vessel's keel below the surface, especially when loaded) of more than 12 metres. Hence the government is planning these ports.

The proposed deep-sea port in West Bengal as well as the other five ones would have draft of around 16 metres.

The West Bengal port would require an investment of around Rs 2,000 crore. Consultants including Sandwell Engineering, Scott Wilson Kirkpatrick and the UK-based CGR have reportedly responded to the RFP for the West Bengal port.

ICTT construction work begins.

The Rs 2000-crore International Container Transhipment Terminal's (ICTT) construction work started at the project site at nearby Vallarpadam Island with 'Bhoomi Puja' signifying the occasion.

The foundation stone of the project was laid by Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh in February 2005.

The first phase of the terminal, being built by the India Gateway Terminal Ltd (IGTL), which is part of the Dubai Ports World, is likely to be completed within 24 months, Port sources said.

Once the project is completed, the terminal would be able to handle about 2 million containers a year.

IGTL officials said the project will be completed as per schedule and the rail and road infrastructure also will be in place by then.

When completed, Kochi will join major ports like Colombo, Singapore and Salalah and Indian exporters can look at substantial saving in transhipment cost.

It took them almost three years to start construction from the time of foundation stone laying

Why only three. It is almost like 10 years late for various reasons including environmental clearance resource allocation etc. The naval base being next door also likely needed approvals and many committee baitaks.

Civil works for Vallarpadam project to start on Monday

The terminal will have the capacity to handle 1 million TEUs per annum. There will be two rail loading and unloading lines serviced by three reach stackers. The rail connectivity will provide access to ICD’s situated as far away as Delhi, Ludhiana, Moradabad, Nagpur, Vijayawada and closer at Coimbatore, Bangalore and Chennai

Bharati Shipyard to build greenfield shipyard at Dabhol, Maharashtra.

Bharati Shipyard Ltd plan to construct a greenfield shipyard at Usgaon near the Dabhol port in Ratnagiri district.

The yard will be equipped to build vessels up to 100,000 DWT and is expected to be fully operational in the next two years.

"The yard will be spread over an area of more than 250 acres," said P C Kapoor, managing director, Bharti Shipyard. "We have already acquired more than 180 acres of land."

The yard is situated inside a creek away from the main sea, which makes it suitable for ship building in all weather conditions. The yard has many other locational advantages including very good water depth, adequate waterfront, scope for further expansion, etc. The civil work and the capex including installation of machineries at the yard has already commenced.

Currently our Shipping sectors is under attack from blind moon bat INS submarines.

Jindal steps into port

Calcutta, Jan. 25: Sajjan Jindal today offered to build a deep-sea port in Bengal, a project that hasn’t gone beyond the drawing board even after years of lobbying the Centre.

The announcement, made after Jindal’s meeting with Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee at Writers’ Buildings today, comes weeks before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh lays the foundation stone for the group’s steel plant at East Midnapore’s Salboni.

“The chief minister asked us to carry out the study for the port. We will start work from February itself,â€