New chairman at PPT

After a break, since the then chairman GJ Rao left in April, Paradip Port Trust (PPT) has got a new boss. SS Mishra has taken over as the Chairman of the port, who was Member (Traffic) of the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI). Till Mishra taking over the charge, Deputy Chairman SAC Bose has been functioning as the acting chairman. An officer of the 1986 batch of the Indian Railway Traffic Service, Mishra has served in various zonal railways such as South Eastern Railway, Southern Railway and East Coast Railway before joining IWAI in August 2011

Immediately after taking over the charges, Mishra participated the celebrations of the Port Day at Paradip port where Orissa Chief Mininster, Naveen Patnaik attended as chief guest. The new chairman requested the chief minister to extend all possible helps from the state. Mishra declared that with the cooperation from the state and the Central governments, the PPT will construct a satellite port near Jatatadhari mouth to reduce the congestion of the Paradip Port. He also assured steps for solving various problems in the peripheral areas. He promised to upgrade the present PPT Hospital to a super special hospital with all modern facilities.

Earlier, PPT has drawn up ambitious plans to raise its capacity to 251 mt by 2020. The previous Chairman Rao had announced PPTÂ’s plans to set up a new port at Bahuda Muhan near Gopalpur in a joint venture with Orissa government to handle thermal coal cargo and cater to power generation units in southern region. There was a shortfall of 1.78 mt of cargo handled during 2011-12 due to slump of iron ore export of 7.30 mt and coking coal import of 0.69 mt during the year. Under the leadership of the new Chairman, the port is gearing up to achieve its plans.