Brief of the Project

Jindal Paradip Port Ltd is developing a greenfield multi-cargo port (Western Dock) at Paradip designed to handle coal, limestone, and steel cargo with a planned capacity of 25 million tonnes per annum. The scope includes jetty (with capacity to handle 5 cargo vessels which includes berthing 2 capesize vessels simultaneously), dredging works, coal and limestone stacking and reclaiming circuits, two sixty-meter-high silos (4000TPH capacity each), and a complete railway evacuation system (30 track km in total which includes 11 line railway siding).

The project was contractually divided into two phases. Phase-1 was meant to enable coal operations, covering jetty readiness, coal stacking and reclaiming, and railway evacuation lines to handle 12.5 MTPA cargo.Phase-2 included limestone and steel circuits and the remaining railway systems to handle the balance 12.5 MTPA cargo. Phase-1 was directly linked to business start-up; it was the point at which coal had to move from ship to rake.

The project commenced in December 2023.

Situation When We Engaged (Nov 2024)

When Realization was engaged in November 2024, the site was active across most fronts in coal circuit. Jetty works were ongoing on all sides. Coal yard civil works were progressing across the whole stream. Several transfer towers were under erection. Both silos were under construction.

However, when the entire coal flow was mapped from jetty to yard to reclaiming to silo to railway, there was no single route close to becoming operable. Yards for all three coal circuits were under execution simultaneously with limited manpower. Only three cranes were deployed across all coal transfer towers and conveyors for structure erection. Both sixty-meter silos were sharing manpower, shuttering/staging materials, and crane. Conveyor structure fabrication had not completed, and materials had also not been supplied. The design of LTT-2, a critical coal transfer tower required for connecting Jetty conveyors with yard conveyors was still pending. Materials were stored in a common yard without circuit segregation.

Execution was distributed across packages and not organized around closing any complete system. Planning existed, but it was not structured around Phase-1 operational readiness.

At that point, Phase-1 was already projected to April 2026. The approaching monsoon window added further productivity risk. The fundamental issue was not progress; it was the absence of an execution structure tied to starting operations.

Management Expectation & Targets

Management clarified that Phase-1 was not about the overall progress of the coal yard; it was about starting the port.

By October 2025, the system had to support unloading coal at the jetty, stacking coal in one yard, reclaiming into one silo, and evacuation through one complete railway line. Phase-1 therefore had to be executed as a single integrated coal circuit to start business operations.

This requirement became the reference point for restructuring execution.

Solution Elements

1. Finalization of Priority Scope to Make the Business Operational

The first step was to establish which coal circuit could realistically be closed first. All coal circuits were mapped end-to-end from jetty to railway. One circuit, passing through CT1, CTT1, CTT-2, CTT-7, CTT-6, CTT-5, and CTT-8 (silo) and the rail interface, had approximately one month less remaining duration than the others. This route was designated as the Phase-1 operational circuit.

2. Full-Kitting to Eliminate Design & Material Blockers

Before changing site deployment, prerequisites blocking this circuit were addressed. LTT-2 civil and structural designs were closed on priority. Fabrication sequencing and material dispatch were realigned so that structural steel and equipment would arrive in the order required for track 1 circuit readiness rather than in general bulk. This removed repeated stoppages where foundations were ready but steel was unavailable, or structures were standing without downstream readiness.

3. Resource Concentration to Achieve Full Front Readiness

On site, critical resource deployment was restructured. The earlier practice of sharing three cranes across all towers was replaced by mobilizing additional cranes and assigning them to specific towers on the Phase-1 circuit. This stabilized erection fronts, reduced remobilization losses, and removed waiting between dependent structures.

Silo execution was reorganized in the same way. Both sixty-meter silos were under construction and dividing resources. One silo’s civil work was stopped, and all civil manpower, shuttering/staging materials, and crane were concentrated on completing one silo first. At the time of engagement, civil completion of the first silo was projected around October 2025. After concentration, the first silo’s civil work was completed on 06 August 2025.

Jetty execution was reorganized to align with coal operations. Instead of manpower being uniformly spread, coal-serving interfaces were prioritized and batched while other areas continued in parallel. The jetty was fully completed by July 2025, aligned with coal system readiness.

Throughout this period, design, procurement, and site execution were synchronized against the closure sequence of the Phase-1 coal route rather than package-wise progress.

Result & Impact

By August 2025, the selected coal circuit through the yard and transfer towers was structurally completed, creating the first physically continuous coal stacking circuit on the project. The first silo’s civil work had already been completed on 06 August 2025, advancing from the earlier October 2025 projection. The entire jetty was completed by July 2025.

In parallel, structural output in the coal yard increased significantly. Sustained erection rates moved from approximately 340–350 tonnes per month to about 750 tonnes per month in January–February, and then to around 1,200 tonnes in the month of March (Peak). This improvement resulted from dedicated cranes, stabilized workfronts, and the removal of internal competition between circuits.

A Major Setback: Modification & Structural Rectification at a Later Stage in Silo Mechanical Work

Although one silo’s civil work was completed in 06 August 2025, reclaiming mechanical works were delayed due to major design changes and rework during installation of silo mechanical systems. This delayed reclaiming readiness by 3–4 months, with completion expected in February 2026. However, all other scope agreed for Phase-1 was completed.

Conclusion

When Realization was engaged, the project had activities across all fronts but no operable coal system. The intervention reorganized execution around one integrated coal circuit, restructured critical resources, closed design and material blockers, and enabled early completion of the first silo and the jetty. The impact was visible in earlier structural closures, the first completed coal circuit, full jetty completion by July 2025, and more than threefold improvement in sustained structure erection output.

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