By end of this fiscal year coal dust will cease to be a problem for the residents of the Port City, especially those living in the old town area, with the coal handling facility being totally mechanised.
In the first stage the General Cargo Berth has been mechanised by the Vedanta Group under the Build Own Operate and Transfer (BOOT) concession and it has started working from April, Chairman of Visakhapatnam Port Trust Ajeya Kallam said, explaining the features of the facility to mediapersons who were taken on a tour of the port facilities here on Wednesday.
The totally mechanised facility lifts the ore from the berthed ship and transfers it to a hopper where water spray ensures that there is no coal dust raised in the operation. The wet coal is then transferred to a conveyor which carries it for a distance of two km to the coal stackyard. The completely covered conveyor has water sprays which ensure there is no dust raised during its conveyance, chief executive officer of the concessionaire – Vizag General Cargo Berth Private Limited – Manral D K explained.
A system of water sprays ensures that the coal in the stackyard does not raise dust. From the stackyard coal is lifted and carried to silos from where it is transferred to rail wagons. The facility has the capacity to fill a rail wagon in one minute which translates into one rake of 59 wagons in an hour.
