One of the largest ports in South Asia, the new Dhamra Port, located on the east coast of India near Bhubaneswar between Haldia and Paradip, will provide a great advantage to the shipping industry due to its highly mechanized handling facilities, which can accommodate huge amounts of freight. It also has the capacity to accommodate super cargo vessels.
AECOM provided Owner’s Engineer services for the Dhamra Port Company Ltd, a joint venture of L&T and Tata Steel, to develop a 300 acres terminal. Services included complete design review, project management and materials and equipment procurement.
The project incorporated all associated infrastructure including a 37-mile-long rail link, a water supply system and township development of 173 acres of residential and public buildings. Additional works included a review of channel and overall layout of facilities, review of cost estimates, siltation study and a ship simulation study.
Phase 1 involved two 1,100-foot-long berths each capable of handling 180,000 DWT iron ore and coal ships and an annual export capacity of 27 million tons per annum. Some 78 million cubic yards of material was dredged along an 11-mile-long channel with an area of 247 reclaimed acres.
With the benefit of close proximity to the mineral heartland of India, Orissa, Jharkhand and West Bengal, the port is expected to result in substantial cost savings for the steel, power and mining sectors and has a potential to become a hub port for both dry bulk and containerized cargo.