Krishnapatnam Port of India, is already setting various benchmarks in its maiden year of operation. The port has achieved two milestones on 25th March by handling the first Cape Size vessel and by achieving an all-India record load rate in 24 hrs.
Vessel MV Cape Santa Milagria, owned by Salgaocars of Goa, arrived at the port on March 25 morning to load Iron ore. Krishnapatnam port loaded 48,889 MTs of Iron Ore in the cape vessel in 24 hrs using the conventional handling system of shore cranes. Total cargo of 85,000 MT was loaded within 48 hours with an average load rate of 42,947 MT per day and the vessel was turned around in 54 hours. MV Cape Santa Milagria, the cape-size vessel is 886 ft long with a beam of 141 ft.
Cape size vessels are handled only at select ports in India as even most of the major ports cannot handle such vessel due to length, beam, draft restrictions. Krishnapatnam port’s capability of handling such large vessels and with such record turnaround times will hugely benefit the exporters and importers by bringing down the freight costs and making them more competitive globally.
Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Executive Officer of KPCL congratulated the entire staff for making such a feat possible in a record time. He also commended the work of the Marine and Dry Cargo departments that were directly involved in achieving the record. “KPCL is capable of setting even higher benchmarks and we are gearing up to bring in two more berths in four months time,” the CEO said.
Krishnapatnam Port has already handled 8 million tonnes in its 1st year of operations and has recently completed Rs. 4000 crore financial closure for the second phase of development. The port is handling a wide cargo mix varying from Iron ore, Coal, Coke, Fertilizers, Raw Sugar, Granite, Quartz, Rock phosphate & Gypsum.