EASTWARD HO!

Calcutta, July 12: The Calcutta Port Trust (CPT) has achieved the highest growth among all major domestic ports in cargo handling during the first quarter of this financial year.

The port has registered a 30.26 per cent growth in traffic at 11.66 million tonnes (mt) against 8.95 mt handled in the year-ago period, an official said.

The absolute growth of 2.71 mt is the highest in the country and was followed by ports in Visakhapatnam (2.3 mt), Chennai (1.93 mt) and Mumbai (1.8 mt).

The achievement is significant as CPT is the only riverine port in the country.

Not only was it pitted against low river draft and the treacherous meandering long navigation channel of the Hooghly but it also had to fight the poor image of low productivity and bad work culture.

The port?s performance has leapfrogged in the last three years from 30 mt to 45 mt last year.

In terms of percentage growth, CPT far exceeded the national average growth of 16.26 per cent. It was followed by the Mormugaon Port in Goa (27.13 per cent) and the Mumbai Port (23.4 per cent).

The Calcutta Dock System has recorded a growth of about 29 per cent, while the Haldia Dock Complex (HDC) has registered 30.4 per cent growth during the period.

CPT chairman A. K. Chanda said the major commodities attributing to the traffic growth were container cargo, vegetable oil and pulses at Calcutta and iron ore, coking coal, thermal coal and petroleum products at Haldia.

The Calcutta Dock System has also posted the highest growth of 36.5 per cent in container traffic handling among all major ports in the country.

In Haldia, the cargo volume went up from 7.83 mt to 10.22 mt. Iron ore exports shot up by 137.26 per cent. Petroleum product movement also went up by 38.75 per cent, while thermal coal by 42.76 per cent.