City port trust allots land for cement plant.

Roads in Mumbai may witness a slight dip in congestion and pollution as the Mumbai Port Trust expects at least 350 heavy vehicles per day due to shipment of cement by the coastal route from Gujarat.

MbPT's chairman and managing director Ravi Parmar said, 'We have allotted 2.5 hectares of land at Petroleum godown to Ultratech cement for 30 years, where cement can be shipped from other states and distributed to users across the city.' This land will be used to build a fully automated cement handling terminal devoid of air pollution, otherwise resulting from handling and transportation of loose cement. In 18 months, when the terminal will be ready, it will promote movement of cement required for city's consumption through the coastal route.

The city consumes approximately 1.25 MMT cement per annum to meet its developmental needs. Currently, this cement is moved by road/rail through neighboring states, necessitating entry and exit of nearly 350 trucks per day, congesting the already overstrained city roads.

The estimated cost of the development of this facility, duly equipped with portable unloaders, silos of 30,000 tonnes capacity, bagging plant and other ancillary facilities is about Rs. 100 crore.

TOI