VASCO: The Mormugao Port Authority (MPA) on Wednesday created a new record of loading the highest quantity of cargo per day and surpassed its previous record.
According to MPA Deputy Chairman G P Rai, the Stevedores Delta Infralogistics (Worldwide Group) Ltd handling the Supra Max ship MV ‘Explorer Africa’, loaded iron ore pellets cargo of 29,150 metric tonnes in 24 hours.
It was loaded at Berth no 10. Previous best record of Delta Infralogistics Worldwide Group Ltd (DIWGL) was 28,008 metric tonnes on a ship in a day.
Pai said, “It is great news for us as we break records and it reflects on our performance as well. The ship was being loaded with iron ore pellets which is a non-polluting cargo. The cargo was being shipped by Mandovi River Pellets Pvt Ltd (MRPPL), which is doing a value added service by bringing in iron ore from Karnataka and making them into pellets at Goa and exporting it out from here and this is clean and different cargo for the port as well.”
MPA Traffic Manager Captain Himanshu Shekhar opined that pellets were a good, clean and non-polluting cargo. “Mormugao Port is the most congested port with lowest land area across India but it handles the highest tonnage per acre. Due to land scarcity we decided on the pre-stacking technology this time and had planned to complete the ship in four to five days. But we completed the ship in 3.5 days,” he said.
DIWGL Vice President Raghoba Kotkar said the ship was loaded with 51,000 metric tonnes in the Mormugao port. The vessel commenced loading at 4.35 am on December 25 and completed her loading at 1.35 am on Wednesday thereby handling record cargo of pellets of 29,150 metric tonnes.
MRPPL branch head Rohan Pai Angle said that it was the pre- stacking technique that helped to achieve the record handling of cargo.
