New automobile terminal to be set up at Chennai port.

Chennai Port Trust (ChPT) will develop an automobile terminal at Bharathi Dock II, the non-operational iron ore terminal, to handle ro-ro (roll on-roll off) vessels. This will have a yard space to park nearly 4,000 cars.

The port used to handle around 18 million tonnes of iron ore and coal, but stopped handling them from October 2011 due to a prohibitory order of the Madras High Court. This resulted in an annual loss of around Rs. 225 crore, with iron ore alone contributing Rs. 105 crore, said a senior ChPT official.

HBL