Krishnapatnam Port deepens draft to 17.5 meters to have the joint deepest draft in India. Port plans to deepen draft further as part of ongoing expansion project
India’s Krishnapatnam Port has increased its draft to 17.5 meters, and now shares the honor of having the country’s deepest draft with Mundra Port.
The draft will be increased further to 18.5 meters in the next two months, making it the port with the deepest draft in India and in time will be increased even further.
The port performs its own dredging works, having three suction cutters and three suction cutter-dredgers and its own dredging team.
Taking advantage of the current draft, the cape vessel Wisdom of The Sea 1, chartered for M/s Gupta Coal India Limited, is berthed at the port carrying 166,060 MTs of South African non-coking coal. The shipment is the largest parcel-size of bulk cargo handled by any port in India.
The deepening of the port’s draft is just a small part of Krishnapatnam’s overall plan of becoming the largest port in India. The port has earmarked US$4 billion of investment to expand the port over the next few years.
The expansion includes the construction of 42 new berths, with a capacity of 200 million tpa, as well as dedicated terminals for RoRo, cruise, and liquid bulk.
In an exclusive interview with PTI, Krishnapatnam Port CEO Anil Yendluri shared his enthusiasm and ambition for the future of the port, stating how everyone from management level down to the tea boy is doing their bit in realizing the port’s ambitions.
“We have unloaded 100,000 tons from one ship in a single day. That’s probably the best benchmark in the world – to be precise, it is 106,000 tons. That’s because of teamwork – right from my drivers, my boys who supply tea, my operators, crane operators, everybody, and that’s the spirit with which we work,” Yendluri told PTI.
“When we started [bulk operations], we started with 14,000 tons, then I said, Come on, let’s cross 25,000, then 30,000. Within a span of one and a half years we crossed 100,000.”
The CEO added that the port plans to expand its capacity for container operations from its current 4,000 TEU capacity to 1 million TEUs by the end of next year, and then to 2 million TEUs in 2014.
The ongoing work to develop the port into one of India’s major port hubs was recognized in September this year after the Krishnapatnam Port was awarded Port Operator of the Year at the prestigious Lloyd’s List Global Awards in London.
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