KOLKATA: The Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port (SMP), Kolkata achieved a historical milestone when 'M V Mineral Yangfan', cape vessel arrived at Sagar Anchorage on Thursday to discharge 70,300 MT of coking coal by floating crane on account of M/s Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL).

This is the largest dry bulker to arrive at anchorage with the highest-ever parcel load. It has an LOA (overall length) of 299.92 mtrs and a beam length of 50 mtrs.

Incidentally, 'M V Mineral Yangfan' is the 18th cape vessel in the current fiscal, while only four cape vessels were handled till August in the last fiscal out of a total of fourteen cape vessels, which were handled in 2021-22.

The Cape vessel with a draft of 9.3m has been registered at Portugal. The load port of the vessel was New Port, USA and the last port of call is Dhamra. Railway Division of Haldia is working in tandem with Marine Division for quick evacuation of cargo from the port and this is making Haldia Dock Complex (HDC), the most preferred port of call which is 80 Miles away from SMP, Kolkata) and 25 miles away from HDC.

After a long persuasion from the management of SMP Kolkata, SAIL has agreed to bring two cape vessels per month and has a plan to mobilise cargo of 1.5 MMT per annum at anchorages.

Vinit Kumar, Chairman, SMP, Kolkata stated that the arrival of 'M V Mineral Yangfan' is significant, not only for being the 1st Cape vessel at Sagar, but also for carrying 70,300 MT of cargo which otherwise would have been carried in 2-3 separate vessels.