PL Haranadh, current chairman of Paradip Port Authority (PPA), took over the additional charge of chairman, Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port, Kolkata, on October 9. He is an Indian Railway Traffic Service Officer of the 1994 batch. He hails from Andhra Pradesh. He has an MSc and a PhD from the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Pusa, New Delhi. During his 27 years of service, he worked in Indian Railways for 22 years and five years in the ministry of shipping.
He has rich experience in rail transportation, especially in freight operations, business development and traffic planning. In recognition of his many meritorious works, he received the National Award for Outstanding Management in 2002 and in 2005. He also worked as deputy chairman of Visakhapatnam port from 2015-2020. He was instrumental in developing innovative marketing solutions like total logistics solutions to customers to attract cargoes like coal, containers etc.
In his last one-year stint as chairman of PPA, the port crossed the coveted 100 million metric tonnes yearly cargo handling mark successfully for the fifth consecutive year. This year, PPA aims to cross the 125 million metric tonnes cargo handling milestone. For improvement in port connectivity under PM Gati Shakti, the foundation stone of the second exit road-cum-flyover has been laid during his tenure. As a part of Vision India 2047, Paradip port will evolve as a world-class mega-port with over 750 million tonnes per annum capacity by 2047. Haranadh being at the helm of affairs, Paradip port has been at the forefront in successfully completing several public-private partnership projects worth over Rs 3,000 crores recently, which led to the capacity addition of 55 million tonnes per annum at Paradip. The port has recently awarded the Western Dock project with 25 million tonnes per annum capacity at the cost of Rs 2,392 crores. The first phase of this project for 12.5 million tonnes per annum capacity will be completed in three years and the overall project in five years' time. On completion, this will enable Paradip port to have facilities to handle large cape-size vessels up to 18.5-metre draft.
