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Santanu Sanyal

"We are in fact extending one of our present bi-weekly Chennai-Port Kelang/Singapore services also to cover the Visakhapatnam port", according to a spokesman for BTL.

Kolkata , Sept. 18

BENGAL Tiger Line (BTL), the Cyprus-registered and Singapore-headquartered major feeder operator in the Bay of Bengal, in partnership with American President Line (APL), the US container major, is to shortly launch its regular service from the Visakhapatnam port to several South-East Asian destinations.

The first vessel, Tiger Bridge, a 1,500-teu feeder vessel, is to call at the newly-built Visakha container terminal of the port on September 21 to load cargo for Port Kelang and Singapore. Thereafter, it will be a weekly service, with a fixed day sailing every Sunday.

"We are in fact extending one of our present bi-weekly Chennai-Port Kelang/Singapore services also to cover the Visakhapatnam port", according to a spokesman for BTL. However, the exporters from Chennai opting for the service via Vizag would not be inconvenienced as every effort was being taken to see that the total turnaround time remained unchanged at around 14 days, the same as the Chennai-Port Kelang/Singapore service, he said.

"Right now, the cargo inducement at Vizag may not be much but we see in it a good deal of potential", the spokesman said explaining that the large volumes of containerised traffic which should have normally come to Vizag because of the proximity to the port, but did not come in the absence of facilities there, would start coming now that the modern container terminal had been installed there.

Also, if the report of Volkswagen's plan to have a plant near Vizag turned out to be true, there would be reasons to expect a jump in traffic, he observed.

As for the arrangement with APL, the spokesman said that the American container major being the market leader in Vizag, the proposed service would help it boost its business further while BTL would be booking the common feeder slots.

There are, however, no immediate plans to introduce Vizag-Colombo service, it was stated.Much would depend on the cargo inducement, which was not adequate. BTL operates regular services to Colombo from Calcutta/ Haldia (one sailing every five days), Chennai (twice a week) and Tuticorin (thrice a week) and Kochi (twice a week).

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