Coffee exporters from Hassan have sought improvement in road connectivity to export cargo from New Mangalore Port Trust. This point was discussed at the recent business meet of NMPT in Hassan recently.

A press release by M.S. Balani, Traffic Manager of NMPT, said here on Monday that the purpose of the meet was to interact with coffee exporters from Hassan region in the backdrop of the forthcoming coffee plucking season.

Explaining the infrastructure addition and ongoing development works at the port to the exporters, P. Tamilvanan, Chairman of NMPT, requested them to make best use of NMPT, which is around 165 km from Hassan.

For this, the exporters said that the connectivity between Hassan and Mangalore needs to be improved. They said that the condition of national highway at Shirady Ghat stretch is poor. They also sought better railway connectivity to NMPT from Hassan.

Tamilvanan said that he would take up this matter with the departments concerned.

Major coffee exporters from Hassan region and the officials from Coffee Board attended the meet.

The release said that the port handled 37,101 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) of containers till January 21 in the current financial year against 35,792 TEUs handled in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.

The container traffic is expected to grow further once the coffee season picks up and also with the arrival of more mainline vessels during the remaining months of the current year, the release said.

Chandrashekar, President of Hassan District Chamber of Commerce and Industry, welcomed the gathering.

vinayak.aj@thehindu.co.in

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