Comments
Visakhapatnam Port has so far handled 47 million tonnes of cargo during the current financial year and is confident of surpassing the 58 mt of cargo handled in the previous fiscal, according to P.L. Haranadh, Deputy Chairman.
Addressing port workers, port users and the trade here on the occasion of Republic Day, he said the 12 major ports in the country had registered 3 per cent growth in the year, handling 447 mt against 433 mt in the corresponding period last year.
He said Vizag Port's performance had suffered due to the decline in export of iron ore by nearly three million tonnes and lower imports of steam coal, which were down by 1.3 mt due to an increase in domestic coal production. Power plants had also reduced their inventories due to the overall economic situation, he added.
He said POL traffic had grown by 20 per cent, fertilisers by 22 per cent, and container cargo by 14 per cent in the current year. The port had successfully navigated the Panamax vessel, M.V. Vishva Preethi, with a 14.5-mt draft at the EU-1 berth in the inner harbour. It had shown an improvement in all efficiency parameters, he said.
The capacity of the port would be increased to 124 mt from the current 93 mt in the next couple of years after the completion of ongoing projects, most of them in the PPP mode.
As part of its green energy initiative, Haranadh said, the port would generate 15 MWs of solar power in the next couple of years.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.