Pace Marine seeks infra support to scale up LPG cargo handing for B’desh

Since March this year, Pace Marine has been carrying out operations at sandhead anchorage, around 112 km southeast of Kolkata port in the Bay of Bengal, for transfer of LPG consignments from large ships to small vessels before transporting these to Bangladesh.

Pace Marine Solutions, which has handled over 200,000 tonnes of LPG at a Kolkata port facility to supply to Bangladesh, is looking for additional infrastructure support from authorities concerned to augment such cargo handling exercise, an official said on Friday. The city port, rechristened as Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port Kolkata, has prospects to handle much more cooking gas consignments, he said. Since March this year, Pace Marine has been carrying out operations at sandhead anchorage, around 112 km southeast of Kolkata port in the Bay of Bengal, for transfer of LPG consignments from large ships to small vessels before transporting these to Bangladesh. ''We are the only LPG/LNG handling company to operate at sandhead even during the monsoon season. The scope is much more than what is happening now. But, for that, we need infrastructure support,'' Pace Marine Managing Director Pawan Gupta told PTI.

Many idle dry bulk berths can be provided to the entity, he said. "With some equipment, we can use these berths to bring LPG to Haldia and Kolkata through small vessels after transloading from large ships at sandhead,'' he said. Currently, Pace Marine is working for Bangladeshi gas companies, which are importing LPG through Kolkata port.

The company has "earned a healthy fee for each ship handled at sandhead and the revenue for the port will increase if more ships call on the port'', he said.

''If the port seeks hefty fees for the idle berths, the viability of handling cargo will get affected. We are investing in a tug costing Rs 15 crore as it will help us ship-to-ship handling at sandhead,'' he added.

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