Kolkata port, now known as the Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port (SMP), is set to start night navigation between Kolkata and Sagar island in the next three months, KoPT chairman Vineet Kumar said on Friday. Cargo movement and efficiency of the port will improve considerably after vessels can sail overnight, Kumar added.
“The first phase of the navigation — till Budge Budge — will start in the next three months. In six months, the entire route — Sagar, Diamond Harbour, Budge Budge and Kolkata — will have the night navigation system in place,” said the SMP chairman.
An SMP team is just back from Belgium’s Port of Antwerp to understand how the night navigation system works in the Belgium port, which is also a riverine port like Kolkata. The Rs 17.3crore project involves a satellite-based system with virtual buoys installed on the Hooghly river to help ships sail 24×7 in and out of Kolkata port, thus enhancing operations. Without the night navigation, ships can’t leave the port at night. Nor can vessels sail between Sagar and Kolkata at night.
Currently, the night navigation system is available till Haldia. It will be extended up to Kolkata, which is further upstream. For this, KoPT is buying software from Antwerp Port for installing shore signals, transits and lighting the buoys so that night navigation will start between Budge Budge and Kolkata in three months and along the entire Kolkata-Sagar route in the next six months, Kumar said. The Qster software will be customised for this system. “Meanwhile, another team of five pilots will be sent to Antwerp,” he said.
The virtual buoys will be placed at various locations on the river to help ships pass through treacherous bards and bends along the 130km distance between Sagar Island and the Kidderpore dock system (KDS). Instead of actually lit-up buoys, their virtual avatars will exist only on the computer screen, thus sparing KoPT from deploying personnel for the job.
Like Antwerp Port, a digital 3D version of its docks simulated in real time, with the help of artificial intelligence (AI), will be used for night navigation. It can find the exact location, arrival and departure time of a ship and will help save at least $10,000 for a ship and thus raise import and export activities at the port.
