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New moorings for quake-hit Navlakhi port

Vinod Mathew

THE Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB) has approved an investment of Rs 30 crore to revamp Navlakhi Port in Saurashtra which was partially damaged in the earthquake.

The apex body for the State's port-based development has shortlisted a few companies for being the project management consultant (PMC) for Navlakhi. Those are in fray are L&T, Afcons, Kvaerner, Simplex and the Chennai-based Navyug Engineering Company.

According to the GMB Vice-Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Mr P. N. Roychoudhury, the consultant would be finalised by May-end and, thereafter, it may take up to four months for the preparation of the bid process.

A leading natural intermediate port of Gujarat, Navlakhi lost traffic of four lakh tonnes in February-March. It achieved only 1.6 million tonnes of cargo throughput in 2000-01 against the targeted two million tonnes. The previous year's throughput was 1. 8 million tonnes.

This negative impact on the port may prove to be a short-term phenomenon as a new jetty is to come up at Navlakhi by March 2002. The GMB has decided to pump in Rs 30 crore -- the single largest investment by a nodal agency in recent times. The overall da mage, including of road and rail lines and the jetty structures, is RS 12 crore.

Talking to Business Line, Mr Roychoudhury said the new jetty would be of the lighterage variety, with a width of 150-200 metres. While development work was to be complete in eight months, the cut-off date for commissioning the new port facility is set fo r 12 months from now.

``Equally significant is the fact that we have been able to vacate the settlers from the GMB territory in Navlakhi, and in the process, clear the way for developing the port as one that can specialise in handling coal. The new facility will take enhanced pollution control measures such as installation of dedicated coal stacking facility and automatic sprinklers to take care of the coal dust, that was becoming a problem for the residents. The PMC in charge of erecting the new jetty at Navlakhi will also have to ensure all installations are earthquake-proof,'' Mr Roychoudhury said.

For a port largely dependent on coal imports for its survival, Navlakhi was caught in a dispute on account of the alleged `encroachments' of its land by 377 families for over the last 50-odd years. While the settlers had filed a public interest litigatio n against the port body for the coal dust pollution, the GMB contended that the settlers had availed themselves of the compensation package offered and resettled themselves elsewhere.

The quake has torn up the two-three-km-long rail linkage between Navlakhi railway station and the port terminal, broken the sea wall and a portion of the jetty installations, and wiped out the settlement over a 20-acre plot at the port terminal. Now, the settlers have exercised their option and decided to take up the GMB offer of Rs 1.4 crore as compensation and vacate the devastated region.

The new Navlakhi port will have 10 coal stacking yards across the 1.2 km x 0.2 km port terminal which, till the quake hit Gujarat, was allegedly squatted upon by 377 families.

Running parallel to this coal storage facility will be the broad gauge railway line, with 700-metre-long railway yard platform, currently under construction. The other major installations near the mainland will be the 15,000 sq m `Transport Nagar', two a dministrative blocks adding up to 2,400 sq m and other allied units such as a canteen, a guest house, a dispensary and a fire station.

The proposed port at Navlakhi will be a far cry from what it is at present. The Navlakhi port office is now being forced to function from Morbi and all its vessels, including tugs and barges, have been sent to nearby ports after the earthquake.

Toss-up between two sites

WITH an intra-departmental mark-up of 3.5-4 million tpa capacity post revamp, Navlakhi is geared to become a major port for coal import.

However, for those who are looking at enhancing coal imports through Navlakhi by March next year, it is not still sure whether the port will add a new jetty and other infrastructure in six months after the successful bidder is identified in September thi s year as scheduled.

The Gujarat Maritime Board has adopted a two-pronged strategy to enhance the berthing capacity at Navlakhi, whose operations are currently limited only to the 103-metre jetty operated by United Shippers Ltd. The other 70-metre wharfage facility, operated by Jaideep Associates, has been rendered inactive by the earthquake, and preliminary estimates point at a further investment of RS 2.4 crore to get it running again.

On the one hand, the GMB will have its projected expansion deadline of March next year in control if it manages to get back the dormant Binani Cement jetty site, complete with requisite environmental clearances, on the grounds that the party has not show n any seriousness to proceed with the project, even years after signing an agreement with the GMB.

Says Mr S. B. Kanani, Chief Engineer, GMB, ``The Board is looking at the immediate development of the Binani site with a 160-metre jetty construction, that will allow barges up to 5,000 tonnes to call at the port on a lighterage basis. At this point of t ime, what is being envisaged is a new port at Navlakhi with up to 25,000 tpd handling capacity. This will help in cutting through lead time by six months as the jetty has all the requisite environmental clearances.''

While the GMB is upbeat that it will soon be able to get back the 200-metre sea-front from Binani Cement, the government body is hedging its bet on the 200-metre sea front. The sea front was originally awarded to the Mumbai-based stevedoring house, V. K. Esteco, but is now back in the GMB stable.

And, the GMB is also keeping its fingers crossed about Jaideep wharfage, egging on the operator to go in for the repair of the jetty at the earliest.

Clearly, the GMB is backing the Binani jetty for short-term gains. At the same time, it has decided that the V.K. Esteco jetty, too, cannot be ignored any longer, given that both the sea-fronts are on the Sui Creek side with four-five metre drought as ag ainst the shallow Versamedi Creek, which has only one-two metre draught.

With nodal agency for port development giving itself 18 months to complete work at Navlakhi, as spelt out in its master plan, it appears as if the once-busy port on the Saurashtra coast is set to regain its lost glory. However, the general cargo mix of f oodgrain and fertilisers may remain a distant memory as the focus today is on coal as the prime commodity.