Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Monday, Feb 27, 2006
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Monday, Feb 27, 2006 |
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Logistics
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Shipping Industry & Economy - Infrastructure Cochin Port ready to handle deep draft vessels Our Bureau
MAKING A POINT: The Union Minister for Shipping, Mr T.R. Baalu, with the Cochin Port Trust Chairman, Mr N. Ramachandran, addressing the media at the Port Trust office on Sunday. — H. Vibhu
Kochi , Feb. 26 The Cochin Port Trust has joined the club of deep draft ports in the country, thereby readying itself to handle mainline vessels requiring drafts up to 12.5 metres. The formal announcement in this regard has been made by the Union Shipping Minister, Mr T.R. Baalu, at a function organised here on Sunday. He said that JNPT, Chennai, Goa and Mumbai are the other major ports in the country in the deep draft ports club. With this achievement, the Minister said that the first phase of capital dredging work is over in the port and it would enable the container terminal to handle container ships carrying 5,000 + TEUs. The operation of mainline vessels would not only help augment traffic volumes, but would also help avoid transhipment through feeder vessels through third country ports, he added.
Dredging
The Minister pointed out that the port had saved around Rs 9 crore in the dredging work as the first phase of capital dredging was completed at an actual cost of Rs 24.7 crore against the estimated cost of Rs 33 crore. The contract was awarded to Kandla-based Jaisu Shipping Co Pvt Ltd in June 2005 and the entire work was completed by February 12 this year within a record time of eight months by a dredging a quantity of 5.6 million cubic metres. The project involved the deepening of the outer navigational channel up to the basin in front of the container terminal, the inner channel up to the Cochin Oil Terminal. By achieving the draft, he said that the port had fulfilled one of the conditions in licence agreement with Dubai Ports to provide a depth of 12.5 metres by February to enable operation of mainline vessels of larger capacity. At the time of transfer of operations, the existing draft was 10 metres, he said. As per the licence agreement, the channels are to be further deepened for 14.5 metres draft and widened to 280 metres by April 1, 2009 coinciding with the commissioning of the ICTT. This draft would enable the handling of container vessels carrying 8,000 + capacity, he said, and added that the port had also plans to strengthen and deepen the adjoining three berths of Ernakulam wharf (Q-5 to Q-7) so that larger bulk vessels requiring deeper draft could be attracted. On the question of a possible threat of monopoly of Indian ports by DP World following the take over of P&O Ports, the Minister said that any such situation would be met as and when it arrived. At present there are rules and regulations in the Companies Act and Competition Commission to curb any such move of monopolisation, he added.
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