The Hindu Business Line : Facelift plans for Tuticorin port

Reports have it that a container feeder service has been launched connecting Tuticorin port on the east coast with Mundra and Kochi ports on the west. This will certainly boost the container handling of Tuticorin port. There is a proposal to convert, with private participation, one of the berths (No 8) into a second full-fledged container terminal. In 2008-09, Tuticorin port, with a throughput of 438,548 TEUs, ranked third among the country's major ports. But then, it would be wrong to presume that the port's strength lies only in container handling. Since it was declared a major port as early as 1974, Tuticorin contributed substantially to the economy of Tamil Nadu by handling a wide variety of items including POL, naphtha, furnace oil, fertilisers, fertiliser raw materials, thermal coal, raw cashew, logs, minerals limestone, chemicals and project cargo. The port has an ambitious development programme in the pipeline to expand the capacity from 20.75 million tonnes (mt) to 84 mt through construction of, among others, an inner harbour at an estimated cost of Rs 1,051 crore and an outer harbour at a cost of Rs 4,350 crore. There is also a proposal to increase the depth to achieve a draft of 12.8 metres to handle large vessels.

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