Krishnapatnam Port resumes servicing capesize vessels
To restore normalcy, the port officials, with the help of in-house dredgers, removed the silt and achieved the draft of 18 meters in 50 days
Krishnapatnam Port has resumed servicing capesize vessels after a gap of over 50 days.
On Wednesday, the port received MV Percival with 1.57 lakh tonnes of coal from South Africa.
Capesize vessels are the world’s largest dry cargo ships and since November Krishnapatnam Port had stopped handling them as rains and floods caused siltation at the dock and the draft level got reduced to 13 to 14 metres.
This affected the port’s operations adversely. Till then, the port handled ten cape vessels each month ferrying about 15 lakh tonnes of coal.
A company official said to dock capesize vessels, ports should have enough width and deep draft of 18 metres. Krishnapatnam Port was one of the few ports on the east coast that had deep water terminal to handle vessels with two lakh dead weight tonnage capacity. Gangavaram is the other port that can handle similar capacity vessels.
To restore normalcy, the port officials, with the help of in-house dredgers, removed the silt and achieved the draft of 18 meters in 50 days as against the usual six months taken for such a task.
Anil Yendluri, Director and CEO, Krishnapatnam Port, congratulated his dredging team for bringing back the port operations to normalcy.
Source: The HinduPosted On:25-Jan-2016
Credits: www.hellenicshippingnews.com |
