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The Visakhapatnam Port Trust is taking steps to make the port cleaner and greener. It has decided to appoint an international consultant on environmental management, according to Chairman MT Krishnababu.
He was speaking to the media here on Tuesday after participating in an interactive session with the representatives of the trade and port users. He said the expression of interest (EoI) for appointing the consultant would be invited this week and the process would take two months or so.
“We will take all necessary steps to keep pollution at the minimum level,” he said.
Cargo handlingKrishnababu said the port had handled 61 million tonnes of cargo during 2016-17, as against 57 million tonnes during the previous year, registering 7 per cent growth. The target for the current financial year is 64 million tonnes.
He said the performance of major ports was much more impressive than that of non-major ports during the past two years and in particular Vizag, facing stiff competition from another port (a private one) within 10 km, fared much better.
Krishnababu said the capacity of the port, 98 million tonnes at present, would rise to 132 million tonnes by 2019-2020 after the completion of the ongoing projects estimated to cost more than ₹2,500 crore. He said the port was offering several concessions and incentives to the trade on different types of cargo and it would strive to promote ease of doing business.
Interactive sessionEarlier, at the interactive session, Visakhapatnam Container Terminal Ltd Chief Operating Officer Sushil Mulchandani said the capacity of the terminal would rise to two million TEUs by 2020 after the completion of the expansion project. The expansion project would be taken up by the end of the year and it may take two years for completion.
G Ravi Kumar, Chief General Manager of the Container Corporation of India (Concor), said services to Nepal would be introduced later this year from here.
PL Haranadh, Deputy Chairman of the port, MS Mathur, the Divisional Railway Manager, Waltair, Kishore, CEO of Visakhapatnam Seaports Ltd, and several others spoke.
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