This was stated by Mr GK Vasan, Minister of Shipping. Vasan said that Paradip Port successfully crossed 50 years in the promotion of Indian trade and commerce and was blessed by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, who laid the foundation stone of Paradip Port on 3 January, 1962. This Port is the first major port on the East Coast commissioned after Independence.
Vasan said that a new Haridaspur-Paradip rail link was under execution by Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd. which would reduce the rail route from the iron ore mines of Odisha to Paradip making the export more viable apart from reducing congestion. Paradip Port has also contributed equity for the construction of this new Railway line. On completion of the project, there will be considerable reduction of the distance from Bansapani to Paradip and the freight will be reduced by
50%.
Mr Vasan said that the Port handled 56 million metric tonnes of traffic during 2010-11 comprising of 31.22 million tonnes of import cargo and 24.81 million tonnes of export cargo. Vasan stated that the Port had embarked upon an ambitious plan to enhance its capacity to 251 MMTPA by taking up several capacity addition projects, strengthening the rail-road connectivity, and
mechanizing / modernizing the existing facilities to meet the requirement of industries.
Some of the capacity addition projects under execution are deepening of channel to handle 1,25,000 DWT vessels at an estimated cost of Rs. 293.36 crore, which is expected to create a capacity addition of 5 Million Tonnes Per Annum, construction of deep draught iron ore berth and coal berth on BOT basis at an estimated cost of Rs. 1070 crore, which would add a capacity of 20 MMTPA.