The sorely felt need for mobile harbour cranes at the Mormugao Port was finally met with the arrival of two Liebherr mobile harbour cranes, each with a lifting capacity of 125 tonnes , from Germany. Along with the arrival of the harbour cranes aboard the MV Charlie, the Mormugao Port Authority (MPA) initiated discussions with two container feeder operators for shipping links to either Mundra port in Gujarat or Vizhinjam International Seaport in Kerala. Both these ports are operated by Adani Ports.
According to MPA officials, it will take 15-20 days for the two mobile cranes to be set up and operationalised, and another three months for the feeder service to commence from Mormugao. “The cranes arrived on Thursday from Germany. These are two cranes with a 120-tonne capacity each, a long-pending requirement of the trade. By the end of this month, these cranes will be installed and ready for operations. Soon we will be able to handle cargo through these cranes,” said MPA deputy chairman, Vinayaka Rao.
The cranes will be operated at berths 10 and 11, which MPA handed over to Delta Ports Mormugao Terminal Pvt Ltd as part of a 30-year lease. “The cranes have a twin lift spreader , so we can move 25 containers per hour, and the movement will be fast.
The port is keen to diversify into clean cargo,” said traffic manager at MPA, Capt Himanshu Shekhar.
Mormugao Port used to handle containerised cargo earlier and even hit around 38,000 TEUs per annum. However, the port’s harbour crane broke down in 2020, and the feeder service for the container cargo also stopped operations as there was no harbour crane to load container cargo. The ministry for ports, shipping and waterways (MoS) asked MPA to procure a 100-tonne mobile crane as part of a tender to redevelop berths 10 and 11 under the public-private partnership (PPP) model.
“We arranged meetings, and within one year of starting container operations, we hope to achieve 24,000 TEUs of containers.
We are currently in talks with two Indian feeder operators to go to Mundra, Vizhinjam Seaport, or Colombo. Colombo is the least preferred,” said an MPA source.
In terms of container cargo, the port expects to export pharmaceutical products, seafood, and pig iron, while imports could see consumer goods and ceramic tiles making their way to Goan shores. The destination for the exports will be Europe and the Middle East. Rao said that the port remains optimistic about container cargo operations, and also hopes to handle steel coils, wood chips and other commodities. “Delta has port handling experience, and they are also marketing the berth. The port is supported from the administrative point of view,” said Rao.
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