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Solar, biodiesel to power Nhava Sheva terminal

Solar, biodiesel to power Nhava Sheva terminal
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Nhava Sheva International Container Terminal (NSICT) is focusing on reducing carbon footprint in our overall operations, Ajay Singh, CEO, tells Sudheer Vathiyath, and explains some of the major steps taken by the terminal operator to ‘green up’ the port activities.

DP World Nhava Sheva has won the Golden Peacock Award for Eco Innovation for 2013. What were the major green initiatives you have done during this period? What are your future plans in this direction of greening your port?
When we talk about green ports, we are trying to use the nature for the benefit of nature. We are focusing on reducing carbon footprint in overall operations. Consumption of electricity is a major concern. For example, a lot of carriers come with reefer containers which consume 50 per cent of electricity. In order to optimise the effective use of power, we are moving from traditional lights to LED and musco lights. So overall, our aim at DP World is to reduce the power consumption per twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU). It is easy for us to define our per-TEU consumption, because we know how much power we consume for our cranes and other equipment and facilities; we already know how many TEUs we handle and how much power is being consumed.

We have planted trees and plants in our terminal area to make this terminal green. We also work on solar energy: All our rubber-tyred gantry cranes (RTGs) work on solar power and thus we reduce our power consumption and carbon footprint. In future, we want to go more solar. We have many cabins that run on conventional electricity. We are planning to use solar power to light these cabins in future.

Could you elaborate on the Safety and Environment Preservation Awareness initiative at NSICT?
We have a dedicated team that is mandated to create awareness about preservation of environment. The team goes to the nearby villages and explains to them the importance and benefits of the various environment preservation activities mentioned earlier.

Efficient cargo handling and evacuation of cargo add to the environment-friendly operations of a port. What has been your experience so far at NSICT?
It definitely adds to the environment-friendly operations of a port. At NSICT, we have equipment of 99 per cent viability. We have a very strong workshop and qualified engineers trained by global DP World professionals to take care of the efficiency of equipment.

In port equipment, RTGs run by fuel 4.0 and QCs run on electricity. In RTGs, we are also looking at bio-diesel now on B2 concept where we saved 20 per cent last year on a trial run. This year we are planning to use bio-diesel across the RTGs.

What are the waste management initiatives at NSICT?
We follow the rules and regulations of the environment ministry. We have given the contract to licensed vendors to handle all the garbage and scraps. They do the overall waste handling at the port.

NSICT, IndiaÂ’s first private container terminal, was set up in 1997 and was inherited by DP World as part of the P&O Ports acquisition in 2006. Located at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port, the terminal has a handling capacity of over 1.5 million TEUs. DP World Nhava Sheva won the Golden Peacock Award for Eco Innovation in India for the year 2013.

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