Dhamra port likely to be operational by next April

August 15, 2009: Tata Steel expects the Dhamra port in Orissa to be operational by next April

, according to the company's latest annual report. Initiated in October 2004 as a joint venture with Larsen & Toubro, the project, developed on a build, own, operate, share and transfer basis, had faced opposition from environmentalists.
 
The project cost was initially pegged at Rs 1,500 crore.
 
"Acquisition proceedings for a private land for the railway corridor have been largely completed in respect of a total of 2,033 acres and the construction of the port is more than 50 per cent complete. The port is expected to be operational by April 2010," the report says.
 
Having received necessary environmental clearances, the port is taking a number of safeguards and measures under the direct advice and supervision of the International Union of Conservation of Nature, a scientific body on environment and wildlife, to ensure that the construction and operation of the port does not pose any threat to ecology. To start with, the port will have two berths of 25 million tons capacity a year. One will handle coking coal imports and the other iron ore exports.
 
The capacity of the coking coal berth will almost equal the present level of total coking coal imports through all east coast ports put together.
 
The company is dependent on imports for a major portion of its raw material -- iron ore and coking coal -- requirements. Tata Steel is self-sufficient to the extent of 25 percent for iron ore needs. With supplies coming in from its mines at New Millennium Corporation in Canada and potentially from the Ivory Coast over a longer term, its iron ore security would gradually increase to around 62 percent by 2015.
 
Overall, raw material security would reach 50 percent by 2015 and go up to about 60 percent by 2018.
 
"The company would be required to make substantial investments in a phased manner to secure the raw material from its overseas mines.
 
"It is also evaluating several other mineral projects in Brazil and Australia," the report says.
 
Source: Business Line