Kolkata Port Trust on track to surpass last fiscal’s cargo throughput

In the 2018-19 fiscal, KoPT handled 63 million tonne of cargo and 8.3 lakh containers (Representational image)

The Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT) is on track to better last year’s cargo handling volume during the 2019-20 fiscal, Chairman Vinit Kumar said on Saturday. The port authority has so far handled 45 million tonne of cargo, a rise of 4-4.5 per cent over the corresponding period last fiscal, he said.

“We are hopeful of surpassing last year’s cargo handling volume at the Kolkata port and Haldia dock this fiscal. So far, KoPT has handled 45 million tonne of cargo,” he said at the CII Logistics Colloquium here.

In the 2018-19 fiscal, KoPT handled 63 million tonne of cargo and 8.3 lakh containers, he said, adding, “We are working towards making KoPT a million-container port”.

Since the Kolkata port is a riverine port, he said there is a big challenge for evacuation of cargo for which an extended port gate is proposed at Balagarh.

“The detailed project report (DPR) is getting finalised following which tenders will be invited,” Kumar said. For the Haldia dock, the volume of evacuation by rail is being increased three times from two rakes to six rakes. He said since the Kolkata port is situated on the National Waterways 2 (NW-II), trial shipments from the city to Varanasi and to the north east has already started.