Kolkata: The Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT) is taking it up with the Shipping ministry and the nationalised banks to facilitate barge operators in availing of bank loans. The latter had raised the issue of being under financial stress as they have not been getting any financial support against their barges. "Banks do not take barges as collateral. We are in talks with the ministry as well as the banks to address the issue as with the National Waterways I project being implemented a good number of barges will be required. The barge operators do not get bank loan easily so we have taken up the matter to come out with a solution to help the barge operators get loan at a reasonable rate," said KoPT chairman Vinit Kumar at an event organised by the Merchant Chamber of Commerce and Industries (MCCI). Kumar added that he had already spoken with CGM of a nationalised bank in this regard and the latter had assured to look into the issue. Currently, there are 65-70 barges operating and it has been projected that requirement would be three times from the present fleet. MCCI president Vishal Jhajharia in his welcome address raised the issue of barge operators not getting financial support against their barges. Talking about other initiatives taken by KoPT to further improve its workings, he said that the port is going to make its lock-gates automated. "It is now manually operated and the process is complex and time consuming. Once we automate the lockgates, the transaction time will come down by 20 per cent. We are investing Rs 4 crores for this work," Kumar added. He maintained that the KoPT is setting up a reefer park in Kolkata Port with 150 multi-level reefer plugs that will help in storage of refrigerated cargos. The reefer park will come up at Netaji Subhash Dock.

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