The Kattupalli port will be commissioned by January, three months ahead of schedule, according to Mr G. Gandhirajan, Chief Operating Officer of the port, which is being developed by L&T Ports.

The port is coming up adjacent to the Ennore port with an initial investment of over Rs 2,000 crore, he said at a seminar on development of ports in Tamil Nadu, organised by the Madras Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

While the commitment to the public and investors was to commission the first phase, which would be mainly container operations, in April, the internal target is to start by January, he said.

Shipbuilding

Larsen & Tourbro Ltd along with Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation formed a joint venture company, L&T Shipbuilding Ltd, to develop a ship building yard-cum-minor port complex at Kattupalli.

This was to enable the domestic ship building industry to build ‘flotilla' for the Navy and the Coast Guard.

Since a stand-alone shipyard cannot sustain a large-scale investment for a breakwater supported harbour, the State Government has also permitted the company to handle other commercial cargo in line with the Minor Port Development Policy.

Port facilities

The port facilities comprise 1.5-km long northern breakwater, 3-km long southern breakwater, 5-km long navigational channel to a depth of 15 metre and other harbour-related infrastructure.

The company will handle containers, which will be operated by the Manila-based International Container Terminal Service, and also build offshore platforms, besides meeting the requirement of the Defence, he said.

In April 2011, International Container and L&T signed a container port operation agreement to manage operate the Kattupalli International Container Terminal.

>raja@thehindu.co.in

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