(From left) SCI chairman S. Hajara, CPT chairman A.K. Chanda and P.V.K. Mohan, chairman of the National Shipping Board, in Calcutta on Tuesday. Picture by Kishor Roy Chowdhury

Calcutta, Feb.10: Calcutta Port Trust (CPT) is planning to build at least six terminals in Haldia to expand cargo handling capacity.

It will look for the deep drafted areas along the Hooghly river which are close to the existing dock complex.

The CPT has already sought expressions of interest from private parties to build four terminals at a cost of Rs 50-60 crore each.

These terminals will be equipped to handle barges. Two other sites — at Jigarkhali and Kukrahati — can handle sea vessels.

“We want to build a hub-and-spoke model with deep drafted ports in the eastern region,” A.K. Chanda, chairman of the CPT, said.

In this model, the hub is the Dhamra sea port in Orissa. Big ships which cannot come to Haldia because of low river depth will reach Dhamra.

Cargo will then be transferred to smaller ships, or barges, and brought to Haldia. Similarly, cargo from Haldia will be placed on barges for Dhamra.

The same can also be done at places such as Sagar Island, Sandheads or Kanika Sands.

“We want to develop a coastal movement of cargo,” Chanda said on the sidelines of Shiport East 2009, organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce.

Being outside the dock complex and not surrounded by lock gates, ships can come and go to the newly identified locations more freely depending upon the tide.

Within the dock complex, the movement of ships is restricted as they have to take a narrow path through the lock gate to the river.

Corpus for ships

The Indian National Shipowners’ Association has approached the Centre to create a minimum corpus of Rs 10,000 crore to help companies buy ships, Shipping Corporation chairman S. Hajara said.