PPT agrees to handle marine products cargo

From the end of September, Pradip Port Trust (PPT) agreed to handle export cargo of seafood or marine products through a designated container yard.

The yard would handle marine products and refrigerated container cargo.

The port authority agreed to handle the marine cargo during a meeting with the officials of the Seafood Exporters Association of India, Odisha region.

Earlier, Vizag and Kolkata ports used to handle seafood export cargo as there was no container handling facility at Paradip.

These two ports handled 1,920 containers of seafood cargo in 2011-12. While 70 per cent of these containers were routed through Vizag, the rest was sent via the Kolkata port. Odisha exports about 23,000 tonne of marine products annually.

By using Paradip port, instead of Vizag or Kolkata, exporters can save Rs 10 crore on transportation costs. Besides, rotation of cargoes will be faster.

Earlier, PPT had urged the Odisha government to make it mandatory for industries operating in the state to ship at least 50 per cent of their cargo through Paradip. By 2020, the port aims to double its existing annual handling capacity from 102 million tonne to 252 million tonne with emphasis on container traffic.