Mr AK Chanda chairman of Kolkata Port Trust said that "These mobile harbor cranes will be installed at berths number 2 and 13 at the Haldia dock complex by September 2008. We have already invited tenders for this purpose."

He added that the estimated cost of installation of these mobile harbor cranes along with the associated structures is pegged at around INR 150 crore. He said "Installing these mobile harbor cranes would help enhance productivity of the two Haldia berths from the existing 8,000 tonnes to 20,000 tonnes per day."

Mr Chanda said that "Kolkata Port is banking on the upcoming steel projects in West Bengal like Videocon Industries, Jai Balaji Industries and JSW Steel as well as the capacity expansion planned by the existing steel plants to compensate its cargo loss to be caused by the Haldia Paradip pipeline. Steel Authority of India Limited has assured that they will provide 6 million tonne of additional cargo per annum for the next fiscal." He added that in all, it is expecting about an extra 12 to 14 million tonnes of cargo per annum from the steel plants.

Kolkata Port Trust has already invited tenders for setting up 3 additional container freight terminals to meet the port's growing container throughput. It handled container traffic of over 349,000 TEUs in 2006-07.