Calcutta, Sept. 15: The Calcutta Port Trust, which faces the risk of losing a significant volume of oil cargo to Paradip port, plans to hike capacity at Haldia by more than 50 per cent.

Chairman Anup K. Chanda said the port would add 25-30 mt of additional capacity to the current 45 mt. This will be done by de-bottlenecking some of the berths and jetties and adding new ones.

Chanda said a large chunk of the investment would come from the private sector. He, however, did not specify the amount.

“We have to create infrastructure before cargo comes,” he said. Calcutta Port Trust will lose around 11mt of liquid cargo, mostly crude, once the Indian Oil Corporation commissions a pipeline.

The Indian Oil plans to unload crude at the deeper drafted Paradip port and then send it through the pipeline to refineries such as the one at Haldia.