A ship anchored at Paradip port. Telegraph picture

Paradip, Aug. 7: Iron ore traffic has registered an impressive growth at the port here despite restrictions imposed by the state government on mining activities.

Iron ore handling by the state’s major port has gone up by 112.48 per cent this year in comparison to the period of the preceding year.

Apart from the restrictions imposed by the state government in mining, the Paradip Port Trust had to combat several other crises. These include the scarcity of iron ore cargo plots and the worldwide slump in iron ore trade.

The iron ore traffic had nosedived drastically as permits of 59 such cargo plots had been cancelled in August last year. Orissa High Court had also reprimanded the port trust officials for granting plots to exporters without adhering to the auction and tender bidding process.

However, things brightened only after the port took initiatives to create ample space for iron ore handling. The port has now brought up 15 new cargo plots measuring 4,500 square metres, exclusively for iron ore traffic. However, the plot owners, who have been leased out the patches for an 11-month period through bidding, have steadfastly begun trading. This has led to the growth in iron ore traffic, said traffic manager of the port Kishore Kumar Sahu.

The port is receiving about 1,000 truckloads of iron ore everyday for export, while the figure was less than 100 truckload six months ago.

The global steel market, which was on a low, is also showing signs of picking up, said a port official.

The port could hardly handle 18.32 lakh metric tonnes of iron ore during the 2012-13 fiscal. But, the iron ore traffic has already reached 14.50 lakh metric tonnes in the first four months of the 2013-14 fiscal.

Another important revelation in the port’s traffic chart in the current fiscal is that rice is being exported to Indonesia after a three-decade hiatus.

As the port mostly transacts traffic of bulk cargoes such as mineral ores, farms shy away from exporting food grains through the port.

Air pollution due to ore transportation also discourages exporters from trans-shipment of food containers.

Overall, the port trust has handled 23.13 million tonnes of cargo till July 2013 as compared to 16.19 million tonnes during the corresponding period of the previous year, which is an increase by 42.83 per cent.

The port has also retained the second rank among all the major ports of the country in terms of cargo handling and traffic growth.

In July, the port handled a record quantity of 61,29,131 tonnes of total traffic, surpassing the previous monthly record of 58,61,503 tonnes in January.

A record quantity of 3,73,424 tonnes of cargo was handled in a day on July 28, surpassing the previous daily handling record of 3,57,424 tonnes on March 11, according to the port trust officials.