Visakhapatnam: Experts in the shipping and ports sector stressed the need for development of necessary infrastructure across the east coast, for last mail connectivity of all the ports.
Despite the global economic situation appearing sluggish with manufacturing growth not showing signs of improvement, there is much scope for India’s economy to better itself in 2016, opined speakers at 4th East Coast Maritime Business Summit on Friday.
Experts worried over less growth in exports, which are not on the expected lines in the country. They pointed out the need to develop industries to boost exports.
In the inaugural session of the summit, the Hindustan Shipyard Ltd (HSL), CMD, Rear Admiral L.V. Sarat Babu, spoke of opportunities in the ship building sector.
This was followed by Concor director of projects and services V. Kalyanarama speaking of multiple solutions and value added services that the rail container operator was willing to offer as part of its multi-modal logistic parks.
Federation of Indian Exports Organisation, ports and logistics committee, Convenor, Walter D' Souza raised a red flag on the dipping export volumes.
“While the last few years did show some signs of improvement, the current year’s export volumes went back to the levels that were during the year 2010,” said D’Souza and mentioned on how working closely with the maritime sector could help exports volume increase.
At the two sessions during the day, several port users expressed their views while dealing with ports and talked about how tariff at ports should be competitive. A representative of Dr Reddy's Laboratories, Dr K. Sathyanarayana spoke of the dearth of pharma handling facilities at ports.
Krishnapatnam Port Company Limited, executive director, Capt Sriram Ravichander, spoke of how efficiency is the best service a port can offer to its customers.
