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C.V. Subrahmanyam

A view of Visakha Container Terminal Pvt Ltd (VCT) in Visakhapatnam. VCT is a joint venture of Dubai Ports World and United Liner Agencies of India Pvt Ltd. —

Ch.R.S. Sarma

Visakhapatnam, June 25

The Visakhapatnam Container Terminal Pvt Ltd (VCTPL) is set to touch, or cross, the one-lakh TEU mark by the end of the current financial year, according to Capt Sriram Ravi Chander, Chief Operating Officer.

In an interview on the eve of the sixth anniversary of the VCTPL here on Thursday, he said the terminal had made impressive strides the past six years and during 2008-09 it had handled 90,000 TEUs of cargo. “We will touch the one-lakh TEU mark by the end of the current fiscal. We have been growing, in spite of the economic recession, at 25 per cent per annum,” he said.

He said the terminal had started operations six years ago in the outer harbour here, as a joint venture between DP-World and United Liner Agencies Pvt Ltd. “We have created the necessary infrastructure here and during the first three years the progress was slow, but had picked up during the next three; the recession had its impact to an extent,” he explained.

He said the VCTPL was confident of touching the half-a-million TEU mark in three years or so and “from then on there will be no looking back”. He said cargo originating from Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, and Bihar was being routed through the terminal.

Capt Ravi Chander said Vizag was ideally located to be developed as a hub for container cargo on the east coast. “We have, this week, signed an MoU with Vedanta Aluminium at Jharsuguda in Orissa and the project cargo will be routed through our terminal. It is a shot in the arm for us,” he said.

In reply to a question, he said tobacco from Guntur was still going to the Chennai port and there were certain problems in attracting the commodity to Visakhapatnam but other commodities such as chillies and cotton were being sent through the latter.

He said 70 per cent of the containerised cargo was being routed through Mumbai and Chennai, even though there were other terminals ready to cater to the needs of exporters and importers. “If there are enough distribution points, and if the necessary warehousing facilities are created, there is really no reason why the cargo, especially white goods, can’t be routed through Visakhapatnam. We have the necessary facilities in the terminal and there will be a distinct cost advantage,” he said.

He forecast a bright future for the VCTPL: “Once the economic recession wears off and the many projects and SEZs in the vicinity of Vizag kick off.”

Mr R. Ravi Kumar, Vice-President of VCTPL, also spoke about the advantages of the terminal.

More Stories on : Shipping/Ports | Supply Chain Management

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