Paradip Port

Paradip Port is a natural, deep-water port on the east coast of India in Jagatsinghpur district of Orissa. The port is situated at confluence of the Mahanadi river and the Bay of Bengal. The port is administered by the Paradip Port Trust (PPT), an autonomous corporation wholly owned by the Government of India.

Paradip Port and coal
Paradip Port has 14 berths with a minimum draft of 13 meters. It can accommodate vessels up to 70,000 deadweight tonnage.

The fully automated coal handling plant can handle up to 20 million tons of coal imports per annum. A single point mooring system handles Very Large Crude Carrier's for Indian Oil.

As of 2010, the approach channel was being dredged to increase depth to at least 18.7 meters to enable the port to handle capesize vessels. A western dock with 6 additional berths is planned to be completed by 2014. Other extensive expansion projects are planned to increase the port's cargo handling capacity to over 133 million tons by 2015.

The port operates an autonomous railway system, with its own railway station. It has an 82 km of track length with over 25 sidings for handling cargo. The rail system connects to the Eastern Railways (India) network of the Indian Railways over a 10 km route. NH 5A is a four-lane national highway connecting the port to Haridaspur near Cuttack, and to the rest of India's highway network.

It was reported that through Paradip Port coal exports rose four fold in December 2011 compared to the same period in 2010. Total non-coking coal imports in December 2011 stood at 420,459 tonne against only 93,920 tonne imported in the same month in 2010.

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