Paradip: Mobile harbour cranes have been pressed into service in the port to speed up the mechanised cargo handling operation.

A ship carrying three mobile harbour cranes of 100-tonnes capacity was berthed on Friday at the newly developed Paradip international cargo terminal.

These state-of-the-art cranes will be used for handling clean cargoes such as steel, containerised goods and finished fertiliser. The move will go a long way in accelerating the cargo handling operation exercise in the port, said a port official.

The mechanised cargo handling will go up considerably with the mobile harbour cranes deployment. Paradip is aiming to get into the "Exclusive Club" of ports in the country which have the tag of 100 million metric tonnes (MMT) of cargo handling per annum.

In the current financial year, 83MMT of cargo handling has already been carried out at the port. "With the deployment of new cranes, we are quite confident of crossing 100 MMT of cargo handing by the end of the fiscal year on March 31, " said a port official.

The trans-shipment facilities of containerised cargoes from Paradip port received a major boost with the commissioning of an international standard containerised cargo terminal berth at the port from December last year.

The berth, built at an estimated cost Rs 128 crore, has enhanced the infrastructure of the port. Earlier, the port had set up a small-scale container terminal for the handling of containerised clean cargoes such seafood.

The port has completely attained the international standard with the berthing of cape-size vessels. It is gearing up to handle more cape-size vessels regularly inside the harbour to enhance the cargo throughput. It is vying for the top position in the country in cargo handling and ship movement withseveral modernisation projects going on.