Saturday, September 11, 2010
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Mormugao Port, GOA one of the oldest ports on the west coast of India, with a
fine natural harbour, has been relentlessly serving the nation in its economic
development for over a century. The Port was declared a Major Port on 2.12.1963.
Mormugao Port, GOA is the premier iron ore exporting Port of India with an
annual throughput of around 33.81 million tonnes of iron ore traffic. Though ore
is the predominant cargo, there has been a steady increase in liquid bulk and
general cargo traffic ever since its joining the ranks of the Major Ports of
India. Excellent facilities, high productivity, streamlined administration and a
dedicated workforce all go towards making this Port one of the most efficient
Port in the Indian subcontinent. With all these attributes, Mormugao Port, GOA
has tremendous potential to cater to the needs of trade and industry and to
contribute to the economic development of the Nation.
At the time of its commissioning in 1888, the Mormugao Port comprised of 3
berths along with a breakwater having a length of 358 meters. As the years
rolled by, the infrastructure slowly kept growing. By 1922, Berths 4 and 5 were
built and the breakwater was extended to its present length of 522.40 meters. A
mole of 270 meters was added.
With the emergence of mining as a major industry in Goa, a Master Plan was
evolved by the Portuguese for the development of Mormugao Port as an iron ore
terminal, envisaging "dedicated berth fitted with Mechanical Ore Loading Plants,
provided and financed by various iron ore exporters." In accordance with this,
in 1959 M/s Chowgule & Co. Pvt. Ltd., was permitted to set up Asia's very first
Mechanical Ore Handling Plant at Berth No.6, with a capacity of 1000 tph. Berth
7 was constructed as an adjunct to it. The Liberation of Goa on December 19,
1961 marked the end of an epoch in Goan history.
Mormugao Port, went through a fair amount of change as the emphasis shifted to
development of infrastructure. A couple of years after liberation, the port was
delinked from the Railway management. The main railway section from Vasco da
Gama to the border of Goa was transferred to the Southern Railways. The Port
however, operated its own railway system between Vasco da Gama interchange point
and the harbour area.
From 1948 onwards the iron ore traffic gained importance. The Japanese were
rebuilding their nation and Goan iron ore was fated to play a key role in the
Japanese industrial renaissance. Japan preferred Goan Iron ore for its expanding
steel industry on account of price consideration and other logistics. The Port
of Mormugao was now poised for a dramatic growth. It would no more be a sleepy
port importing table wines from Portugal and exporting oil cakes from Hubli.
Others avenues had earlier been opened by enterprising foreigners. Josephine
Hougaz was one such an ethnic Syrian holding a US passport. She introduced Goan
cashew nuts to American chocolate makers. Wall Street had crashed. The year was
1929,for almonds and walnuts, until then the preferred fillings for
American chocolate and pastry makers, had reached levels that were beyond most
of their consumers. But cashew nuts, though subject to considerable sea freight
additional for importers, were in comparison cheap but nutritious and tasty
American confectioners took to Goan cashew nuts in the year of the wall street
crash.
The exploitation of iron ore mines in Goa on a commercial scale since 1947,
brought about revolutionary changes in the pattern of Mormugao Port traffic. The
level of traffic at the port rose to over 2.78 lakhs tonnes in the year 1953.
In the years that followed, the traffic grew by leaps and bounds reaching the
mark of 6.4 lakh to 14.8 million tonnes in 1973-74. Today, the iron exported
through Mormugao constitutes 39 per cent of the total iron ore exports from
India, and the port occupies a prestigious position amongst the Major Ports of
the country.
The growth of traffic accentuated the inadequacy of the available port
facilities but it offered new opportunities to daring entrepreneurs. In 1959,
Chowgule & Co. Pvt. Ltd., obtained a concession from the Portuguese government
and set up a Mechanical Ore Handling Plant with a handling capacity of 10,000
tonnes per day. The growth of trafficaccentuated the inadequacy of the available
port facilities but
it offered new opportunities to daring entrepreneurs. In 1959, Chowgule & Co.
Pvt. Ltd., obtained a concession from the Portuguese government and set up a
Mechanical Ore Handling Plant with a handling capacity of 10,000 tonnes per day.
It was, it is claimed, the first of its kind in Asia.
The declaration of Mormugao as a Major Port in 1964 was a milestone in the
annals of its history as it joined the ranks of the
country's ten major Ports. The Port administration could now embark upon a
sustained development programme as its newly formed Board of Trustees was
empowered to take major decisions financial or otherwise.
With the rise of Brazil and Australia in recent times as aggressive ore
exporters, the mineral ore industry today was seeing a sea of changes in iron
ore market.
In 1965 therefore, a Perspective Plan was drawn up by a reputed firm of
consulting engineers, seeking to develop Mormugao Port systematically for
providing deep waters and high capacity loading, particularly in relation to
iron ore exports, which needed to be competitive in the international arena by
reducing the transportation cost
As a first step in that direction, a 20-year perspective plan for the port
development was prepared in February 1965, by the consulting engineering firm of
Randal, Palmer & Tritton. Thereafter, in February 1968, HOWE ( India) Pvt. Ltd.
were appointed to prepare the design study for the establishment of a modern
mechanical ore handling facility for the port within the framework of the
perspective plan. As a follow-up on the report by HOWE (India) Pvt. Ltd. a
mechanized ore handling facility for receiving, stockpiling, reclaiming,
weighing, sampling, and ship-loading of 12 million tones of iron ore annually
was installed and commissioned in 1979. The rated loading capacity of the ore
handling system was of the order of 8,000 tones per hour. The dredging of the
channel and berths was carried out to permit the loading of 60,000 dwt. ore
carriers initially. Barge unloaders and rail wagon tippers were provided for
quicker and more efficient handling of incoming ore.
Major developments of the Port were taken up only after it became a Major Port.
A number of developmental projects were implemented under the various Five Year
Plans of the Government of India. Consequently, a dedicated mineral oil berth,
berth No. 8 was constructed in 1976. Later on as the general cargo traffic was
gradually picking up in the Port, a number of schemes were implemented with a
view to augment the general cargo handling facilities at the Port. Two
multi-purpose general cargo berths, berth No.10 and No. 11 having draft of
11.00 mts and 12.50 mts were constructed and commissioned in 1985 and 1994
respectively. Meanwhile the Mechanical Ore Handling Plant installed in 1959 at
Berth No. 6 was de-commissioned in 1992 due to obsolesce. The age old berths 1
to 3 were leased out to a private company, Western India Shipyard Ltd, for
installing a modern ship repair facility, which was commissioned in 1995. In
1997, the metre guage railway of the Port linking to the south Central Railway
was converted to broad guage. By this, the Mormugao Port is now accessible for
any part of the country through the broad guage railway system.
TRAFFIC PERFOMANCE PROFILE
TRANSWORLD TRADE LINKS OF MPT
Mormugao Port occupies a prominent position as India's premier iron ore
exporting port. A quantity of over 33.81 million tonnes of iron ore is exported
in 2008-09 through this port mainly to China, Japan, Korea, European and Gulf
countries. This accounts for about 36% of the total iron ore export from India.
During the financial year 2008-2009 the port handled a traffic of 41.68 million
tonnes which is 8% of the total traffic of 530.36 million tonnes handled by all
the twelve major ports of India. The traffic during the year consisted of 33.81
millions tonnes of iron ore including iron ore pellets , 5.20 millions tonnes of
coal/coke and 1.40 million tonnes of petroleum products and other liquid cargo.
The remaining traffic consisted of cargoes like fertilizer, alumina,
limestone, containerized cargo, H.R.Steel coil & Steel slabs. The Mechanical
Ore Handling Plant loaded 11.51 million tonnes of iron ore. The general cargo
traffic was 6.48 million tonnes. A quantity of 146,888 tonnes of containerized
cargo was also handled at the port during the period.
