The Port of Paradip is located on the Bay of Bengal on the northeastern coast of India, on the delta of the Mahanadi River. Development of the Port of Paradip began after 1958, and in the 1970s, it became the State of Orissa's primary port and a major transport center for the central states of India.
Port Commerce
At first under the control of the Orissa government, the port's foundation stone was laid by Nehru in 1962, and dredging started in 1964. The government of India took over port management in 1965, and India declared the Port of Paradip to be its eighth major port in 1966. Today, the Port is administered and operated by the
Paradip Port Trust.
In 1966, the port was opened for iron ore traffic, but since then the character of cargo passing through has changed. Today, the port receives and ships coal and ores like chrome and manganese. It also handles limestone, steel materials, scrap, fertilizer, and food grains. In 1991, the port shipments first included containerized cargo for shipping petroleum products. The Port of Paradip is Orissa's most important fishery harbor, with about operating 300 boats.
Commissioned in 1966, the iron ore berth offers a 155 meter jetty and draught 13 meters deep, and it handles 4 million tons of cargo a year. The Port of Paradip has 14 cargo berths with a total of 3.4 kilometers of wharf and depths from 11 to 14 meters. Total capacity for the cargo berths is 39 million tons. Container-handling facilities can accommodate a limited number of containers, and the Port Authorities have commissioned a feasibility study to increase container-handling capacity.
The Port of Paradip contains four storage sheds that can store 30 million tons in a total of 1.6 hectares. It contains two warehouses on 0.7 hectares that can handle 18 million tons of cargo. The Port also offers over 149 hectares of open stack yards that can accommodate over 30 tons of cargo and that are connected to rail and road.
During the 2005-2006 season, the Port of Paradip handled a record amount of cargo, 38.5 million tons, including 26.5 million tons of rail-borne traffic. It was also a record year for exports and imports, with 24.9 million tons of export cargo passing through the port and 13.7 million tons of import cargo. Over 1400 vessels visited the Port of Paradip. Iron ore accounted for 11.9 million tons of total cargo handled.
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