The Hindu Business Line : VPT to invest Rs 3,000 cr to improve facilities

Visakhapatnam, Sept. 21 Visakhapatnam Port Trust (VPT) has drawn up plans to invest Rs 3,000 crore during the next five years for development of infrastructure and Rs 1,600 crore will come from the private sector, according to Mr M.S. Rao, Deputy Chairman.

He made a presentation on the port at a conference - EXIM excellence – 2007 - organised by the AP chapter of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here on Friday.

Mr Rao said that VPT, the premier port of the country for the past seven years, had handled 29 million tonnes (mt) of cargo till date during the current fiscal and registered 16 per cent growth.

The average turnaround time of the vessels had come down to 3.65 days in 2006-07 as against 3.80 days in 2005-06.

“During the current year, we have achieved many landmarks and national records in cargo handling,” he said.

He said VPT hoped to handle 80 mt of cargo by 2012, which called for enhancement of the port capacity to 100 mt from the present 58 mt. Deepening of the inner harbour to cater to Panamax vessels of 14 metres draft had been identified as one the thrust areas and it was being taken up in three phases. The phase-I was nearing completion for 11 metres draft.

new berths

He said that construction of three new berths including two on BOT basis, revamping two oil berths to cater 12.5 mt draft vessels, mechanised loading facilities for alumina and fertilizers and installation of harbour mobile cranes were some of the projects taken up in the inner harbour.

In the outer harbour, there were plans to upgrade it to handle 2 lakh DWT iron ore vessels, night navigation to Suezmax tankers and integrated mechanised handling facilities for coking and steam coals.

As the container traffic in South-East Asian region was expected to grow by 18 per cent, PT plans to extend the present container terminal once the container volume picked up.

Besides, it had also taken up development of a new railway interchange yard near Mindi as the cargo traffic at the port was predominantly rail-borne, he said.

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