Vallarpadam terminal launch in Jan '10

The Cochin Port Trust (CPT) has scheduled the soft launch of Vallarpadam International Container Transshipment Terminal in January 2010. The $500 million terminal at Vallarpadam in Kerala is likely to go on full stream by March 2010 and will handle 42 million tonnes of cargo.

Speaking on the sidelines of Connect 2009, a two-day seminar on logistics organised by the CII Institute of Logistics, N Ramachandran, chairman, CPT, said the project was being built by Dubai Port World in two phases. While the first phase, with an investment of $250 million, is ready, Phase II would commence immediately after the launch of the terminal.

The port has invested Rs 890 crore and Rs 300 crore to create road and rail connectivity respectively. Another Rs 349 crore has been invested to deepen the draft to 14.5 metre, which will help the trade reduce the need to transship their containers through ports like Colombo, Singapore or Salalah. At present, by going through the transshipment ports, there is a delay of nearly ten days.