Visakhapatnam port cargo handling capacity to be raised, says chairman MT Krishna Babu.

The cargo handling capacity of Visakhapatnam Port would be raised to 120 million tonnes from 80 million tonnes after completion of several projects, port's chairman MT Krishna Babu said.

Addressing reporters after assuming charge here today, Krishna Babu said that projects worth around Rs. 2,500 crore, were being executed in the port in the public-private partnership (PPP) mode as per Government of India's norms.

He said that according to the Government of India's maritime agenda, Rs. 10,000 crore would be spent on several projects in Viskhapatnam port by 2020.

However, internal resources of the port alone would not be sufficient and therefore the PPP mode was chosen, he said.

Dredging in the outer harbour had been completed and with modernisation of the general cargo berth, bigger vessels could be handled in the outer harbour, he said, adding that dredging work upto the turning circle might be completed by August, while the remaining work could be expected to be over by December.

ET