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

The berth built for Rs 128 crore became operational on Tuesday, thus further enhancing the port's infrastructure. Earlier the port had set up a small-scale container terminal for the handling of containerised clean cargoes such as seafood, said deputy conservator, Paradip Port Trust, Atulya Kumar Mahapatra.

The port trust had already inked a concession agreement with Paradip International Cargo Terminal Private Limited for the construction of the terminal. It was a special purpose vehicle project. Built in public-private partnership mode, the project was completed in two years.

Exporters from the state dealing in garments, textiles, cement, rice, engineering goods and machinery, paper, granite, steel scrap and seafood would reap benefits of the state-of-the-art containerised cargo handling system in Paradip, said a port official.

So far, exporters from Odisha had to divert their containerised cargoes to Haldia or Visakhapatnam as there was limited facility here to handle such goods and commodities. Containerised cargo berth would boost seafood exports from the port, said port trust trustee member Bhuban Mohan Jena.

While Odisha accounts for export of 23,000 tonnes of marine products annually, Paradip port did not figure in the export route.

Seafood is trans-shipped in refrigerated containers and there was no such facility here. While 70 per cent of these containers were routed through Visakhapatnam, the rest was sent via the Calcutta port, said Srikant Parida, president, All Odisha Trawl Operation Association.

The port trust had facility for handling containerised cargoes, but on a limited scale. The establishment of a full-fledged container terminal would lead to spurt in export and import of containerised cargoes. Odisha happens to be a major hub of marine produce in eastern India. The seafood export would also be trans-shipped through Paradip with the commissioning of container terminal.

The port handles mainly bulk cargos including mineral ores and coal. But, the global demand is now on containerised cargo. However, hardly 2 to 3 per cent of the port's Rs 1,000 crore revenue was being accrued from containerised cargo, according to port trust officials.