Five major ports poised to cross 50 mt cargo handling mark

The Union Minister of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways, Thiru T.R. Baalu has called upon the Port Chairpersons to vigorously take up the execution of projects under National Maritime Development Programme (NMDP) to ensure on-time completion of the ambitious programme by 2011-12. Thiru Baalu told them to prepare a work-plan and undertake weekly review of the NMDP projects and bring the problem areas to his notice, so that corrective action can be taken expeditiously.

The Minister expressed the satisfaction over the fact that five major ports for the first time are poised to cross the 50 million tonnes of traffic handling during the current financial year. These ports are: Vishakhapatnam, Chennai, Mumbai Kolkata and Kandla. The 12 Major Ports have handled 378.89 MT of traffic during April-January 2007 as against 348.05 during the same period of the previous financial year which is almost 9 per cent increase.

Thiru Baalu asked the officials to prepare a compilation of projects pending with various arms of the Government like Planning Commission, Ministry of Law or Ministry of Finance and said that efforts would be made to get clearance for such projects expeditiously.

The issues concerning various Ports were discussed at the meeting. In context of Haldia Dock System which is a Riverine Port and is facing the problem of regular flow of siltation causing deterioration in draught availability, Thiru Baalu directed that issue should be addressed under the River Regulator Measures Scheme. It was also informed at the meeting that a Feasibility Report is being taken up for setting up of a modern deep sea port facility as part of Kolkata Port in West Bengal to meet the enhanced demands of the international trade which is on the upswing.

The Mumbai Port Trust Chairperson informed that the process has been initiated for appointment of consultant for establishing a new cruise shipping facility near Gateway of India under NMDP. The Cochin Port Trust Chairperson informed about the pace of implementation of the International Cruise Terminal. The JNPT Chairperson informed that the ongoing project of improvement of road connectivity would be completed by December this year.

The New Mangalore Port Trust informed that the NMDP project for deepening of Channel and lagoon to increase draught from 15.1 mt. to 17 mt. is being undertaken and geophysical studies have already been completed and the techno-feasible studies are underway.

Thiru Baalu also called for enhanced security measures for the Major Ports in the wake of possibility of terrorist attacks on vital installations. He said that modern equipment and latest technology should be deployed for Container Cargo Scanning to ensure security arrangements apart from the facilities in place for the custom purposes.

Source : Press Information Bureau

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