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Plans to correct imbalances: Mr M.P Pinto, former Secretary, Shipping, delivering the inaugural speech at the two-day East Coast Maritime Summit 2008 which began in Visakhapatnam on Tuesday. He is flanked by (from left) Mr D. Surya Rao, Chairman of the Cocanada Chamber of Commerce, Mr K. Raghuramaiah, Paradip port Chairman, Capt P.V.K Mohan, Chairman of the National Shipping Board, and Mr Ajay Kallam, Chairman of the Visakhapatnam Port Trust.

Our Bureau

Visakhapatnam, Nov 18

There is an urgent need to correct the imbalance between the western ports and the eastern ports with regard to container cargo and to develop coastal shipping, according to several experts who spoke at the two-day conference on eastern ports – East Coast Maritime Summit 2008 – which began here on Tuesday.

The Chairman of the National Shipping Board, Capt P.V.K. Mohan, who was the chief guest at the inaugural, said coastal shipping had been “badly neglected all these years” and the board would take all requisite measures to develop coastal shipping. The eastern ports would have to play a crucial role in achieving the objective. Container cargo would have to be developed at the eastern ports, as currently, , more than 70 per cent of such cargo was going from the western ports.

He said the Union Government would have to lay clear-cut guidelines on private investment in ports and related infrastructure projects.

He also said the State Governments would have to develop minor ports in all the coastal states.

The new Chairman of the Visakhapatnam port, Mr Ajay Kallam, said the port was ready to face future challenges and competition fromother ports.

Projects to augment capacity, costing more than Rs 3,000 crore, were in progress. “All the eastern ports, Visakhapatnam in particular, are poised for a giant leap in the next five to ten years and container cargo is also bound to grow from these ports,” he said.

The throughput at Vizag port would grow to 80 million tonnes by 2012 from the present level of 64 mt, he added.

Mr M.P. Pinto, former Secretary of the Union Ministry of Shipping, who presided over the inaugural session, said the importance of the eastern ports could not be overemphasised, keeping in view the future economic growth of the country and the need to tap “the virgin markets of Asia.”

The Paradip port Chairman, Mr K. Raghuramaiah, said both the Visakhapatnam and Paradip ports would have to play a crucial role in view of many steel plants and power plants coming up in Orissa and Andhra Pradesh in the near future.

The General Secretary of the Visakhapatnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mr K. Vijay Kumar, the Chairman of the Cocanada Chamber of Commerce, Mr D. Surya Rao, and the editor of Exim India, Mr Nikhil Modi, and others spoke.

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