The sorely felt need for mobile harbour cranes at the Mormugao Port was finally met with the arrival of two Liebherr mobile harbour cranes, each with a lifting capacity of 125 tonnes, from Germany. Along with the arrival of the harbour cranes aboard the MV Charlie, the Mormugao Port Authority (MPA) initiated discussions with two container feeder operators for shipping links to either Mundra port in Gujarat or Vizhinjam International Seaport in Kerala. Both these ports are operated by Adani Ports.

According to MPA officials, it will take 15-20 days for the two mobile cranes to be set up and operationalised, and another three months for the feeder service to commence from Mormugao. The cranes will be operated at berths 10 and 11, which MPA handed over to Delta Ports Mormugao Terminal Pvt Ltd as part of a 30-year lease.

Mormugao Port used to handle containerised cargo earlier and even hit around 38,000 TEUs per annum. However, the port’s harbour crane broke down in 2020, and the feeder service for the container cargo also stopped operations as there was no harbour crane to load container cargo. The ministry for ports, shipping and waterways (MoS) asked MPA to procure a 100-tonne mobile crane as part of a tender to redevelop berths 10 and 11 under the public-private partnership (PPP) model.