The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) has accorded environmental and CRZ clearance to Paradip Port Trust.

The green nod is for development of outer harbour, inner harbour including western dock and mechanisation of the existing operational berths at Paradip Port, Odisha.

The project involves enhancing cargo handling capacity from 93.6 million tonne (excluding SPM) to 173.6 million tonne (excluding SPM), to reduce pollution by mechanisation of manually operated old berths and proposed to handle cape size vessels.

The cargo will be able to handle all types of bulk cargo like coal, iron ore limestone, dolomite, etc.

The mechanisation components include ship loaders/unloaders, stacker, reclaimers, stacker-cum-reclaimers, rapid wagon loading system, development/upgradation of stack yards and other ancillary facilities required for handling cargo in environmentally sustainable way through enclosed conveyors eliminating dust generation.

The cost of the project is Rs 12,743.18 crore. Of this, outer harbour project is worth Rs 8,667 crore, berth mechanisation project is worth Rs 2,541.18 crore and inner harbour expansion including western dock is worth Rs 1,535 crore. The total area, outer harbour is 193 ha (reclaimed area), western dock is 52 ha.

The water requirement for the project is about 5.8 MLD which will be fulfilled by the Port Trust from its existing arrangement of Taldanda canal uptake point.

About 41 MVA power will be required for construction and operation of the outer harbour. The power will be drawn from the Atharbanki substation of OPTCL. Additional, 35 MVA power requirements for  expansion of inner harbour and mechanisation of the existing berths will also be met from the existing source of power of Paradip Port Trust.