VO Chidambaranar Port, one of the 12 major ports in the country has set a record by handling 5.61 lakh TEU container traffic, a growth of 9.36 per cent over the previous period.
"VO Chidambaranar Port has achieved a momentous landmark in container handling by surpassing the previous financial year's container traffic of 5,59,727 TEUs by handling 5,61,586 TEUs 25 days ahead of the close of the current financial," a statement from Ministry of Shipping said today.
This year, upto March 6, 2016, the Port has maintained an impressive growth at 9.36 percent as compared with the same period of last financial year, it said.
The port offers the fastest transshipment time to Colombo among all Indian ports. At present, there are two container terminals in VO Chidambaranar Port - Berth nos 7 and 8.
"Berth No 7 with a capacity of 4.17 lakh TEUs is being operated by PSA SICAL. The Terminal commissioned under BOT basis on December 21, 1999 operates 8 services a week, of which 6 services are operated between Tuticorin and Colombo, 1 Coastal service and 1 international cum coastal service connecting Tuticorin - Colombo - Mundra - Jebel Ali - Mundra - Pipavav - Cochin and Tuticorin," the statement said.
The Berth-8, operated by Dakshin Bharat Gateway Terminals Mumbai, commenced its partial operations from May 11, 2014 and full fledged operation with the capacity of 6 lakh TEUs is expected by December 2016 with commissioning of quay cranes, the statement said.
TEU (Twenty Foot Equivalent Unit) is used in shipping as the unit of the capacity of a container ship.
Commodities like cotton yarn, handlooms, machinery, sea food, paper, granite, coir pith etc are exported though containers to Europe, North America and almost all Asian Countries, the statement said.
It added cotton, metal scrap, waste paper, cotton fibre, chemicals, metal and rubber products, among others are imported predominantly from Europe and East Asian Countries.
On February 20, VO Chidambaranar Port Trust also created a new record in handling copper concentrate.
Over 19,000 tonnes of copper concentrate in bulk was unloaded from a vessel, which is the highest tonnage ever achieved in a single day in the port using hoppers.
