KalingaTimes Correspondent
Bhubaneswar, Feb. 9: The first ship carrying project cargo from Sanghai , China , berthed at the Dhamra Port jetty on Monday afternoon. The Chinese vessel, ZHENHUA–11, used the 18 km long DPCL channel in the sea to reach the port jetty.

The ship is carrying Ship Loader and two Ship Unloaders for the port, which are one of the largest machineries in the whole world. The Ship Loader has the capacity of 5000 tonnes per hour (TPH), while the Un-loader has the capacity of 2800 TPH. The unloading operation of these machines commenced on Tuesday.

According to an official release, the Zen Hua-11 vessel had left China on January 22, 2010. Its length is 243.80 meters and breadth is 39.35 meters. Its weight is 37,743 GRT (gross registered tonnage). After the unloading operation the ship is scheduled to sail back to Sanghai after 10 days.

DPCL is a 50 : 50 joint venture of L & T and Tata Steel. The port project work commenced in April 2007 and its completed by almost 85 percent till date.

The port Master Plan provides for 13 berths, capable of handling more than 100 MTPA of dry bulk, liquid bulk, break bulk and containerized cargo.

However, during phase-I DPCL is building two fully mechanized berths of 350m each with a handling capacity of 27 MTPA along with backup facilities for handling imports of coking coal, steam coal, limestone and export of iron ore.

The 18 km long channel of the port and berths are being designed for draught of 18 m capable of handling cape size vessels upto 180000 DWT.

DPCL is building a 62 km single rail track from Dhamra to Bhadrak on the main Howrah-Chennai line.