NEW DELHI (Commodity Online): India's major thermal energy producer, NTPC Ltd will have its requirement of coal at its Farakka Plant in West Bengal to be supplied through the nation's largest inland waterways transport system (IWTS)to be set up by Jindal ITF.
A strategic agreement between Jindal ITF and NTPC have been concluded for creating and operating the infrastructure which aims to reduce the dependence on the overstretchd railway network.
Considering the current constraints of the Indian port sector, this project will bring a paradigm shift in Indian shipping operations. Jindal Vector has made a capital commitment of USD 140 to 170 mn to this project.
This marquee project shall 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 maximize 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 MT. NTPC requires around 3MMT of imported coal per annum for its Farakka TPP. This solution involves using barges in the waterways and trans-shipment over land. The project includes the use of the largest barge fleet in India along NW-1 and promotion of inland waterways.
The CEO of Jindal ITF, Mr. Probal Ghosal said, "Our partnership with NTPC will be a winning combination and is a step to leverage the opportunities existing in the inland waterways transportation domain. It will be our endeavour to commission the facility within the stipulated time-frame and provide coal logistics in an efficient and eco-friendly manner".
The Vice Chairman of Jindal ITF, Mr. Indresh Batra added "Every great achievement was once considered impossible. For the first time in the history of Indian inland waterways, this trans-shipment and barging infrastructure will bring about a paradigm shift in shipping on the east coast of India. The project is scheduled to commence within 15 months time for phase 1 operations and Jindal ITF is confident of completing the project within the stipulated timeline".
Jindal ITF is India's first Total Logistics Solutions Provider with a High-frequency, High reliability Service, Port-to-Port, Door-to-Door, Container and Bulk Cargo. Jindal ITF has a network combining high-quality intermodal operations with state-of-the-art information technology. India's underused waterways with efficient east-west linkages, longest Contiguous coastline and large river network offer huge opportunities for waterways transportation. Intermodal transport deals with carrying freight using specially designed carrying and cargo protecting units that can easily be swapped between several transport modes, e.g. road, rail, inland waterways, open seas, air. This avoids unloading and reloading of individual items but results in a lower overall payload due to the duplicated load-bearing elements of the rail vehicle and the load carrying units. Apart from waterways transportation, Jindal ITF is also into water infrastructure, waste management and fabrication businesses.
(Courtesy: IndiaPRWire)
.
