The Hindu Business Line : New Mangalore port H1 traffic at 15.77 mt; surpasses target

THE New Mangalore Port Trust (NMPT) has topped the list of major ports in surpassing the targets set by the Union Shipping Ministry on traffic handling for the first half of the current financial year.

The NMPT has handled 15.77 million tonnes of traffic during the period surpassing the target of 12.89 million tonnes, registering a growth of 22.31 per cent.

The Tuticorin port, which came second in this list, handled 7.68 million tonnes of traffic surpassing the target of 7.10 million tonnes, thus registering a growth of 8.17 per cent.

The NMPT also registered 41.05 per cent increase in traffic compared to the H1 of the last fiscal. It handled 11.18 million tonnes of cargo in the H1 of 2003-04.

The Chennai port, which occupied the second slot in this list, handled 20.09 million tonnes of traffic during the H1 of 2004-05 compared to 17.44 million tonnes during the corresponding period of the last fiscal, thus registering a growth of 15.19 per cent.

The NMPT sources attributed the rise in the traffic to the cargo of Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL).

As MRPL is handling more than its capacity, there has been an increase in the traffic of crude oil and products. They said that the NMPT is ranked second among the major ports in the country in terms of POL handling.

The port handled a record quantity of 5.94 lakh tonnes of LPG in H1. Of this, 1.53 lakh tonnes was handled in September alone.

Container traffic also increased by 55 per cent during the first half of 2004-05 compared to the corresponding period of last fiscal.

Contribution of the NMPT to the total traffic of the major ports, which was at 6.98 per cent in H1 of 2003-04, increased to 9 per cent during H1 of the current fiscal.

Though the port handled 432 vessels during in the first half of the last fiscal, the number increased to 501 during the corresponding period in this financial year, they added.