Dhamra port receives first capesize vessel

The Dhamra Port, which became commercially operational from May 7, 2011, received a capsize vessel with the arrival of a Chinese ship from Australia. It is first capesize vessel namely 'mv China Steel Responsibility'  in the port, which carried around 1.5 lakh tones of coal from Australia for Tata Steel.

The ships has a capacity of 1,80,000 DWT (deal weight tonnage). This is the largest vessel that Orissa and its neighbouring state West Bengal have received so far.

The ship with 19 Chinese crew members on board berthed at the Dhamra Port jetty at around 4:15 pm Sunday evening. It took around 20 days for the ship to reach Dhamra from Australia via Singapore. After unloading the cargo, the vessel is likely to return on July 27.

Dhamra Port has two berths of 350 meter each. It presently has a handling capacity of 25 MTPA and the 18 km long channel of the port has a depth of 18 meters, capable handling vessels up to 1,80,000 DWT.

Dhamra Port Company Limited (DPCL) chief executive officer Santosh Kumar Mohapatra along with State commerce and Transport Secretary Gagan Dhal and Collect, Bhadrak Akshay Kumar Pani were present at the jetty to receive the first capesize vessel.

According to Mohapatra, "the first cargo ship had berthed at Dhamra jetty on September 18 last year. The ship named 'YIN PU' had carried around 23,000 tonnes of coal from Australia".

According to Port Authority, till date 20 ships have berthed at the port. About 94 full rakes with 59 wagons each of cargo have been sent from the port to various locations, the Port Authority said.