Cochin Port Trust decides to offer 50% discount to mainline vessels

Kochi: The Board of Trustees of the Cochin Port Trust has decided to offer 50 per cent discount on vessel related charges to mainline vessels from September 1. This concession will be applicable to all container vessels of GRT 25000 and above, having capacity of 2,500 TEUs and above and connecting ports in the US, Europe or China.

According to officials, the discount scheme will directly benefit the mainline operators by way of big savings in vessel related charges and also by saving extra steaming time due to the ideal geographic location of Kochi on the main sea route.

With mainline vessels calling at Kochi, the need for transhipment of containers at hub ports in neighbouring countries could be eliminated. Direct calls will also help exporters and importers to efficiently plan its `just in time' shipments by avoiding delays or rollover of containers at the hub ports, the officials added.

It needs to be emphasised that the imports and exports from the hinterland of the Kochi will definitely become cheaper with the mainline vessels calling here.

A mainline vessel call to Kochi is also more logical in view of the proximity of the hinterland of Coimbatore, Pollachi, Tirupur, Erode, Karur, Dindigul and Namakkal, the officials added.

The officials pointed out that the RGCT, operated by the India Gateway Terminal, has been systematically laying the foundation to facilitate the handling of mainline vessels.

The traffic at the RGCT has grown by 25 per cent in the first five months of the current year compared with last fiscal. With mainline vessels calling at Kochi, the prospects for further growth are very bright, the officials said.

The terminal has handled 202,000 TEUs during 2005-06. During July and August, the RGCT handled record number of containers.

While it handled 21,592 TEUs in July, 22,488 TEUs were handled in August.