Feat: Chennai Port handle 50-mn tonnes

Chennai: The Chennai port on Tuesday crossed the milestone of 50 million tonnes of cargo handled, which is a record for the port. So far this year, the port has handled 50.06 million tonnes, a 12.92 per cent increase over the corresponding period last year.

The performance was 1.23 per cent increase over the Shipping Ministry's target of 49.46 million tonnes. The ministry has set a target of 52.20 million tonnes for 2006-07 and the port would surpass the figure, said Mr K. Suresh, Chairman, Chennai Port Trust. 'Achieving 50 million tonnes in a year is a significant moment for Chennai port, an old port that is now growing in glory,' he told newspersons.

Three years ago, the port lost around nine million tonnes of thermal coal (meant for Tamil Nadu Electricity Board) to Ennore, and then the port's cargo handling was 35 million tonnes.

From then on, the port's cargo handling bounced back at a rapid pace, he said.

However, it would be difficult to sustain the momentum since the port trust plans to move out coal from the port to become a `clean port and green port' to handle increased volumes of containers, automobiles and project cargoes. In a phased manner, it plans to move out coal, which is currently handled for customers like the Karnataka Power Corporation and Andhra Pradesh Power Corporation. The port trust has informed about the decision to users, who would move coal to ports like Tuticorin, Ennore or Cuddalore, he said.

So far in this fiscal the port handled 33.62 lakh tonnes of both thermal coal and coking coal. 'In a couple of years, we expect around 50 per cent reduction in coal handling at the port,' he said.

The port trust would soon hand a large portion of land (meant for coal handling) to PSA-Sical, which is to build the second private container terminal inside the port. This means less area would be available for coal handling from next fiscal, he said.

Mr Suresh ruled out any immediate plans to move out iron ore, another dirty cargo, from the port. 'It would take some time since a huge number of employees are engaged in iron ore handling,' he said.

So far, for this fiscal the port handled 98.48 lakh tonnes of iron ore, a 13.94 per cent increase over previous year, but a shortfall of 5.19 per cent over the ministry's target of 1.03 million tonnes, he said.

Deloitte, Touche & Tohmatsu, a global consultant company, would give its final report to the Centre on the Chennai Port Business Development Plan that will chart a short-term strategy for the port over a seven-year period and a long-term plan over 20 years.

The consultant, appointed by ChPT, has been interacting with the port users, stakeholders and various departments as part of their exercise to draw up a vision for port to 'become a clean and green port dedicated to handling containers and cars,' he said.