Tata Steel, one of India’s leading steel manufacturers, became the first steel company in Odisha to use inland waterways to bring in heavy machinery for its Kalinganagar plant expansion project, reiterating its commitment to creating a carbon-neutral future.

Tata Steel’s consignment sailed in a chartered vessel from Shanghai to Paradip port in Odisha. It was then loaded on a barge that travelled up Luna River and was finally unloaded at Marsaghai, in Kendrapara district on March 15, 2022. Thereafter, the consignment was transported via roadways and reached the project site on April 2, 2022.

Tata Steel’s Engineering & Project (E&P) Division used multimodal logistics including inland waterways for shipping nearly 1000 Cubic meters (CBM) of four Super Over Dimensional Assembled Cargo (SODCs), each weighing up to 100 metric tonnes having a diameter of 8 meters. These project cargos are part of the Slag Granulation Plant that is being set-up in the Kalinganagar plant of Tata Steel.

For this ambitious project, Tata Steel had roped in Deugro projects India Pvt. Ltd., a leading logistic solution provider in freight forwarding and project logistics solutions. On the initiative, Avneesh Gupta, Vice President (TQM and Engineering & Projects), Tata Steel, said “This will pave the way for a sustainable logistics model with a potential cost advantage, which will be achieved through consolidation and import of plant and machinery in an assembled condition. This will also contribute towards decarbonisation of the steel sector and the country while also improving road safety due to minimised road movement.”

The waterway route will also open a new mode of transportation for Super ODC project cargos to overcome future challenges and uncertainties involved in road restrictions. This will also enable the import of bigger sized assembled equipment directly to the site, reducing fabrication, assembly, supervision job, etc. at the site.