Paradip Port is located about 58 km from Jagatsinghpur Town and 94 km away from Cuttack. It is a major seaport of India for trade activities with a fine sea beach. It is famous for being the fish trading centre of eastern India. Many international ships can be seen in this port. Paradip is one of the Major Ports of India. Late Biju Patnaik, the then Chief Minister of Odisha, is the founder and father of Paradeep Port. Late Jawaharlal Nehru, the then Prime Minister of India, laid the foundation stone of the Port on 3rd January 1962 near the confluence of the river Mahanadi and the Bay of Bengal. The government of India took over the management of the Port from the Government of Odisha on 1st June 1965. INS “Investigator” had the privilege of maiden berthing in the Port on the 12th of March 1966.
The Port was declared open by the Late Peter Stambolic, the then Prime Minister of Yugoslavia on the same day. The government of India declared Paradeep Port as the Eighth Major Port of India on 18th April 1966 making it the FIRST MAJOR PORT on the East Coast commissioned after independence.
Paradeep Port Trusts
The Port of Paradip, an autonomous body under the Major Port Trusts Act, 1963 functioning under the Ministry of Ports, Shipping & Waterways is administered by a Board of Trustees set up by the Government of India headed by the Chairman. Paradip Port is strategically situated so as to serve a vast hinterland spreading over the states of Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal. Paradip Port enjoys the advantages of soft underwater soil so that it can be deepened to any depth depending upon the need. At present Paradip Port is handling various cargo like Crude Oil, POL products, Iron Ore, Thermal Coal, Chrome Ore, Coking Coal, Manganese Ore, Charge Chrome, Ferro Chrome, Ferro Manganese, Limestone, Hard Coke, Ingots and Moulds, Billets, Finished Steel, Scrap, Fertilizer, Fertilizer Raw Material, Clinker, Gypsum, Project Cargo and Containers.
The Port is now equipped with 16 (sixteen) berths, 3 (three) Single Point Moorings (SPM), 1 (one) Ro-Ro Jetty, a well-maintained Approach and an Entrance Channel having 17.1 Mtrs minimum depth to handle a wide range of vessels up to maximum LOA of 260 Mtrs. A maritime museum and an aquarium with different types of sea animals are kept here. The musical fountain at the Sylvan Gardens of “Smruti Udayan” Gopabandhu Stadium, the officers club, the golf course and the lighthouse is very excellent. (source)
