3 mooring systems mooted at Saugor for more berthing space

Debaprosad Lahiri

KOLKATA, Dec. 24

THE Indian Institute of Port Management (IIPM) has suggested to the Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT) to develop three instead of two mooring systems at Saugor Anchorage as a means to realise the full potential of lighterage operations there. The installation of three mooring systems, according to IIPM, will help the port authorities berth three vessels at a time, instead of two as earlier planned.

The IIPM expert team, in its techno-economic feasibility report on construction and operation of a mooring berth with buoys at Saugor Anchorage for round-the-year cargo operation, has noted that "the prospects of transhipment operations at Saugor are extremely bright''.

It therefore recommends that "KoPT may seriously consider providing three separate mooring systems for accommodating three vessels at a time for the lighterage operations at Saugor''.

Earlier, KoPT had planned to develop the project through private sector participation on a BOT (build-operate-transfer) basis. But the IIPM holds just the opposite view. Since it will be a new venture, KoPT should develop the first mooring buoy system by itself, the report suggests.

Once the operations have stabilised and procedures have been streamlined, the other two mooring buoy systems may be developed through private sector participation on a BOT basis.

The KoPT board has accepted the suggestion and decided to involve Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA), an internationally reputed consultant, for the implementation of the project. The Ministry of Shipping has been approached in this matter.

The proposed location for the mooring berth lies at a distance of about one km from the western bank of Saugor. The navigable distance of the proposed site is 84 km from Eastern Channel light vessel at Sandheads and about 145 km from Kolkata Dock System.

The navigable channel leading to Saugor passes over two bars i.e. Gasper and Middleton. The maximum permissible draft for ships working at Saugor Anchorage is currently limited to 10 meters. Since the area has a much deeper stable depth, a draft of 10.5 meters, which may be achieved after some dredging, will be needed for achieving the viability of the project.

The initial dredging requirement has been taken as 2.2 million cubic meters with a reshoaling factor of 30 per cent as indicated by KoPT. Interestingly, the Saugor Island never experienced any severe cyclonic storm in the past.

The transhipment traffic at Saugor Anchorage increased from 0.5 lakh tonne to 1.54 lakh tonnes between 1995-96 and 1999-2000 (excluding crude oil). The IIPM projection envisages a traffic 3.04 million tonnes of cargo by 2006-07 on the completion of the mooring project. The first phase of the project with one mooring buoy system is likely to be completed during 2002-03.

While computing the capacity of the mooring systems, the IIPM report suggests operations of five hooks round the clock to achieve 2,500 tonnes per day output for break-bulk vessels and the hook output must not suffer due to the non-availability of barges.

The handling of vegetable oil would be through pipeline and a throughput of 6,000 tonnes per day is considered achievable. For handling coke and thermal coal vessels, labour alone would not be able to ensure ship day output of 5,000 tonnes per day. Large barges would be necessary for the purpose.

For break bulk vessels, it is expected that private operators would deploy adequate number of barges of appropriate sizes, once the operation stabilises. At present barge operators have a fleet of about 150 barges of various capacities.

The Central Inland Water Transport Corporations (CIWTC) has a fleet of 60 barges with capacity ranging from 300 to 800 tonnes each vessel. For handling vegetable oil traffic, requiring special barges, there would not be any bottleneck, given the scale and pace of operations planned.

But the petroleum coke and thermal coal vessels would require bigger barges each with at least 5,000 tonnes capacity, if not more. These special types of barges are at present available on the West Coast.