The barge was launched from Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) jetty in the presence of Indresh Batra, Vice chairman– Jindal ITF Ltd.
Also present at the occasion was Vishwapati Trivedi – IAS, Secretary, Shipping, Government of India, Amitabh Verma – Chairman, IWAI, Ministry of Shipping, Government of India and Subrata Bakshi– MP, South Kolkata.
Speaking on the occasion, Indresh Batra said “Waterways is the most eco-friendly modes of bulk cargo movement and must be used to its full capacity. This mode of transport consumes lesser fossil fuel than traditional means of transportation and owing to minimal congestion ensures reliable and on-time delivery of shipment to the destination. Jindal ITF is committed to consolidate its operations further in this sector.”
“This project that begins operations today, will surely give impetus to local economy. We thank the Honorable Minister Vasan for his support and presence. We appreciate the support we have got from the Ministry of Shipping and the State Government," he said.
The company said that the estimated outlay for the project is in excess of Rs 500 crore. Fleet of 23 barges would transport three million tonnes of imported coal to NTPC’s power plant at Farakka per annum through inland waterways for seven years.
It said this marquee project is to introduce the concept of a trans-shipper on the East Coast of India which has a capacity to handle Panamax vessels. Panamax ships are vessels designed to fit in the Panama canal's locks, hence the name, denoting that they both maximise the freight transported and that they are the biggest ships able to pass through the canal.
The Jindal barges will be specially constructed to fit the width and depth of the waterways to Farakka. Each barge will have a storage capacity at least of 60,000 metric tonne.
The project will be developed on PPP model on design, build, finance, operate and transfer (DBFOT) basis, which will have assets to include fixed infrastructure at Farakka and floating infrastructure like transhipper, vessels, barges etc. A conveyor belt will take the coal from the jetty to the coal stockyard.
Jindal ITF will also unload and transport imported coal from high seas to the Farakka plant, for which they have created infrastructure, including a mid-sea transfer point, all the way to the NTPC coal stock yard.
In 2011, state-run power producer NTPC inked a tripartite agreement with IWAI and the infrastructure arm of Jindal SAW, Jindal ITF for transportation of coal to its 2,100 MW power plant located at Farakka through inland waterways.
Inland water transport (IWT) is widely acknowledged as among the cheapest form of transport for goods and is used extensively in countries such as China, Germany and the US by utilities for transporting bulk cargo.
In China, navigable inland waterways total more than 100,000 km and there are a large number of inland port facilities with berths for large vessels. IWT accounts for almost 10 per cent of the freight tonnage.
In Bangladesh, about 35 per cent of the freight movement is by inland waterways, according to figures from the Asian Development Bank. India is estimated to have nearly 14,500 km of navigable inland waterways.
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