Govind D Belgaumkar/The Hindu

• New Mangalore Port can now load ship without onboard cranes
• A rare visitor to Mangalore

Mangalore, Oct 26: The New Mangalore Port Trust (NMPT) has an interesting visitor. It welcomed mv Navios Gemini, a gearless cargo vessel, on Monday.

The ship has called at the port to load 67,055 tonnes of iron ore to be taken to China. In shipping parlance, gear is a crane used to load cargo onto ships.

For the NMPT, it is a milestone because it can now load large ships without the need for onboard cranes. For exporters, it is important as they can now save up to two to three dollars a tonne, according to NMPT traffic manager S Gopalkrishna. This is because gearless ships can employ fewer people and reduce maintenance expenditure.

As the 190-metre ship has no crane on board, it can load up to 80,000 tunes of cargo. But safety concerns prevent full loading, according to NMPT sources.
Gopalkrishna told The Hindu that a gearless ship makes it far easier for the port to load the cargo using high-capacity (105-tonne) cranes on the docks.

Another official said semi-mechanical loading usually takes up to seven days to load a ship of the size of Navios Gemini.

But the official expects the operations to be over in four days now. “You can save up to 40 per cent of the time,” the official said.

Mechanized

The NMPT is in the process of getting a fully mechanised ore-handling system at a cost of Rs. 150 crore. Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Ltd. has a fully mechanised system in place now. It can load up to 6,000 tonnes in one hour. When the system is in place, the port will be able to load a ship such as Navios Gemini in a day.

The port handled a record traffic of 17.98 million tonnes of cargo during the half year ending 2007-08 as against 15.77 million tonnes during the corresponding period in the previous year, Gopalakrishna said. The growth was 14 per cent.

The port also received mv Ocean Odyssey, the first cruise vessel of the season with tourists from the U.K.  The vessel started its voyage from Sri Lanka and, after visiting Goa, reached NMPT. It then left for Lakshadweep.