Chennai: The Chennai Port has set into motion crucial initiatives that could spur its revenue besides further improve its performance in handling cargos.
“We have now signed another memorandum of understanding (MoU) with a company from Hyderabad to help us transport goods between Chennai and Hyderabad. We are expecting the service to begin from June 11,” says Chennai Port Trust chairman Cyril C George. On Tuesday, the Chennai Port Trust signed an MoU with Southern Railway to optimise rail throughput of automobile traffic for export through Chennai Port. This will facilitate transportation of automobiles from Walajabad to Chennai Port, he said.
Already, the CPT has signed an agreement with a private firm to transport goods from Bengaluru to Chennai and trains are operated twice a week for this purpose.
Speaking to reporters here on Tuesday evening Mr George said the Chennai Port Trust took up dredging at a cost of Rs 30 crore to allow larger ships to dock in the Eastern coast. The move would fetch higher revenues. “Chennai Port Trust has become the first deep port Trust. It can handle vessels with 15.5 metres draft and no other port has got this much deep draft facility in India,” Mr George added.
The port will handle container vessels of around 8,000 TEUs (twenty foot container vessels). This is a major achievement for the port, he said.
The port had reported a 4.7 per cent decline in cargo handling to 50.06 million tonnes (MT) during 2015-16 fiscal as against 52.54 MT in the previous year.
Despite this, the port managed to report an 82 per cent increase in net surplus due to handling of higher revenue generation cargo like project cargo to report higher operating income.
In 2015-16, the port’s two private container terminals together handled a total of 1.56 million TEUs, which was the highest number of containers handled till date thus surpassing 1.55 million TEUs handled in 2011-12, said Mr George.
