Chennai Port Trust announces revival plan

The port is aims to handle granite blocks, cobble stones, barytes, oil companies, edible oil, fertilizers and others

In an effort to revive its dwindling cargo traffic, the Chennai Port Trust (ChPT) has announced to kick start a new journey titled 'Mission Resurge Chennai Port - 2016' . This cargo traffic of the port was hit by competition and regulations, mainly those related to coal traffic.

The port is targeting to handle granite blocks, cobble stones, barytes, oil companies, edible oil, fertilizers and others, in order to compensate the loss of coal traffic.

"We need to find new cargo to compensate the loss of coal traffic. We will be approaching all the major stakeholders, including trade members in other states to bring new cargo to the port," said MA Bharkarachar, Chairman, Kamarajarar Port, and holding additional charge as ChPT.

The drop was due to ban on coal handling by the Madras High Court. According to the authorities, in 2010-11, the port handled the highest cargo throughput of 61.46 million tonnes (MT) and it came down to 52.54 MT in 2014-15.

Of late, the port decided to roll back vessel-related charges by 50 per cent from January 2015 levels. It has also reduced cost of deployment of port labour by revising the manning scale, at a range of 56 to 100 per cent depending on the type of the vessel, he said.

It may be noted that the neighbouring ports have attracted dry bulk cargo especially coal, which used to be handled by ChPT, said Cyril C Geogre, deputy chairman, ChPT.

He was refering to Krishnapatnam, Karaikal, Kamarajar and Kattupalli.