Angre Port commissioned, to handle 16 mt cargo per annum

The Angre Port, being promoted by the Chowgules and having a capacity to handle 16 million tonnes of container, dry bulk and liquid cargo annually, was thrown open to commercial operations here today.

The port, built at an investment of Rs520 crore, is targeting traffic from a 350km radius in southern Maharashtra and northern Karnataka, will help in shipping sugar products (refined sugar and molasses), horticultural and farm produce like mangoes and foodgrain, fertilisers and engineering goods, among others.

The port, named after emperor Shivaji's admiral Kanhoji Angre, who is respected for his foresight in building a navy way back in the 17th century, will serve as an alternative to goods from the catchment area, which goes to Mumbai and up to Gujarat's Mundra for shipments, Chowgule Ports & Infrastructure Managing Director MP Patwardhan said.

"Transporting a container from Kolhapur to Mumbai costs around Rs28,000 while the same will cost Rs8,000 if sent to the Angre Port. Once we start operations, we expect savings of up to Rs600 crore per year on transportation costs alone to exporters," he said.

Built on a 320 acre land parcel that houses the jetty and other support infrastructure, the port does not have a rail link and goods will have to be transported by road to the Mumbai-Goa NH 17, which is off 42km.

The port has a natural draught of 10 metre at present, which will be gradually increased to 13 metre through dredging in the next three years.

Located on the southern bank of the Shastri river, the port has a 350-metre jetty with four berths and is operational throughout the year, Patwardhan said.

The group started acquiring the land used for the port from the early 1990s and had signed a concessional agreement on a build, own, operate, share and transfer basis in March 2008 to construct the port.

After the environmental and other clearances, construction started in June 2010 and finished in 675 days, chief executive Atul Kulkarni said.

At present, it can handle ships of up to 50,000 DWT, which are generally used to transport goods that it is targeting, he said, adding there is also a provision to extend the jetty by another 100 metre in future.

The port lies three nautical miles from the Mumbai-Goa shipping route and the company is in talks with oil marketing companies for having bunkering or refueling facilities for ships midway through their voyages.

Patwardhan said, rather than taking the goods to the Mumbai port by sea and then transferring them on to bigger vessels, the company is pursuing to connect directly with international ports in the vicinity and plans are afoot to put in place a feeder service to Dubai, which will help perishable commodities like mangoes.

The Chowgules are also in talks with car manufacturers to export cars from the port and Patwardhan claimed the tidal factors at the port make it ideal for exporting cars without any damage to the cargo.

This is the second port to come up in Jaigad, after the much larger one constructed by the Jindals--whose JSW Power runs a thermal power plant in the area--is already operational.

Patwardhan and Chowgule group chairman Vijay Chowgule, said they do not consider JSW's Port as competition as it has been built largely keeping in mind the group's requirements of handling coal.

Additionally, the Angre Port's focus on handling only clean cargo and not coal and iron ore, will help it gain advantage, Chowgule said.

"Our concentration on clean cargo will help. I think there is enough room and enough business in the geography waiting to be tapped," he said, adding vital operational services like tugs, pilot boats, security offer possibilities of tie-ups between the ports situated on either side of a hillock.

The Angre Port joins others on the 700-km coastline of the state like the twin Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust and Mumbai Port Trust located in Mumbai, the Dharamtar Port in Raigad district and the JSW Port.

Construction on other ports, notably in Raigad district's Dighi, and at Vijaydurg in Sindhudurg district, is already underway.