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Mumbai port to cut polluted cargo as city plans makeover

But port authorities plan to only increase port operations after cutting down on pollutant cargo – thermal coal and coking coke-- whose handling will altogether won't be discontinued

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Mumbai Port Trust
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Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT) is trying to give itself a new swanky look by developing its land for a new-age Mumbai, but will it cut down port operations?

"Port operations will no way get discontinued, on the contrary, they are going to be increased in a planned manner," said Sanjay Bhatia, chairman of MbPT.

But port authorities plan to only increase port operations after cutting down on pollutant cargo – thermal coal and coking coke-- whose handling will altogether won't be discontinued.
In order to increase the annual port operations, the cargo in focus would be petrol, oil and lubricants, chemicals, steel, cement and others.

Coal is considered at polluted cargo as it has to unloaded at the port, while petrol and oil products are not as they are transferred via pipelines.

On a conservative estimate, petrol, oil and lubricants will go up 46% to 53.1 mmtpa by 2035 from 36.3 mmtpa in 2014-15. Handling of chemicals would be more than doubled to 5.3 from the existing 2 mmtpa.

As per the statistics available with DNA Money, during 2014-15 a total of 61.7 million metric tonne per annum (mmtpa) was handled at MbPT and by 2020 there will be marginal increase to 62.6 mmpta. During the current fiscal, the annual cargo throughput is at 61.11 mmtpa.

According to the projections of MbPT, by 2035 a total of 94.7 mmtpa of cargo will be handled from Mumbai, despite Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust increasing their capacity and Wadhwan Port near Dahanu coming up by then.

MbPT has around 721 hectare of land on the eastern coast and south Mumbai. Out of this, around 500 hectare of the port land will be redeveloped. As part of the Township Mumbai Port Complex, around 165 hectare will be utilised and the rest would be used for the creation of other tourism and business district related facilities. It will take a year for the ground work to begin, and preparation of master plan is underway. It will take four years from the ground work commencing for the first phase to be ready, which is by 2021.

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