Hajara in Calcutta on Monday. A Telegraph picture

Calcutta, June 11: The Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) is planning to invest $4 billion to acquire 72 vessels over the next five years.

The company has placed orders for 12 vessels entailing an investment of $1 billion, while orders for 60 more for $3 billion are being planned in phases, SCI chairman and managing director S. Hajara said today.

The first 12 ships are scheduled to be delivered between 2008 and 2010, while the additional 60 will come in the next five years. At present, SCI has a fleet of 79 vessels. Hajara said the company was sitting on a huge cash reserve and had a healthy debt equity ratio that could support its expansion plans.

The capacity of SCI is 4.8 million deadweight tonnage (dwt), which is a measure of the capacity of cargo ship. It was expected to increase capacity to at least 8dwt once the acquisitions are completed. Hajara said the company was open to venturing into new areas within the maritime sector, including shipbuilding. However, no proposals are being considered at the moment, he added.

Calcutta Port

A five-member committee has been constituted to study aspects of development of container cargo at Calcutta Port Trust. The committee is expected to submit its report to the ministry in the next four months.

The committee held its first field visit to Calcutta and Haldia Dock today and will come back in July. It will also look for reasons behind the sluggish growth in container traffic from Haldia compared with other ports, P.V.K. Mohan, chairman of the committee on containerisation, said. It will study the possibility of container traffic handling berths at the proposed port extension to Diamond Harbour of CPT.

CPT chairman A.K. Chanda said three berths were being planned at Diamond Harbour.