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V. Sajeev Kumar

Kochi, July 11

AS part of conducting a direct interactive meeting with the trade from Kerala, the Tuticorin Port Trust (TPT) had recently organised a trade promotion meeting at Kollam to attract the exim trade from the region to this East coast port.

Senior port officials, representatives of shippers and port users have participated in the meeting in which the port authorities highlighted the facilities offered by the port in efficiently servicing the ships as well as the cargo. The port officials informed the meeting that the growth in the exim trade from Kollam especially shipment of raw cashewnuts had been giving a direct impact in the port's traffic throughput that recorded a 13.30 million tonne of cargo in the fiscal of 2002-03.

The quality policy that clearly reflects in the port's working is "to ensure customer satisfaction through continual improvement of facilities and services for maritime trade at optimum cost," Mr N.K. Raghupathy, Chairman, TPT said in a statement issued here.

The port had introduced various incentive schemes both for general cargo operations and containers with effect from April 1. This included remission of wharfage to Customs House Agents for growth in commodity-wise traffic and introduction of package marine charges to attract mainline container vessels, he said.

The port had also enhanced the free period for raw cashew to 10 days on par with the neighbouring ports following the request made by the trade. The port authorities, with the help of Highways and Railways, had successfully solved the problem encountered by shippers at the S Bend near Shenkottah for the free movement of containers between Kollam and Tuticorin.

The issues raised by the trade in the last year's interactive meeting were also resolved. As part of this, competent authorities would inspect port weight ridges periodically to avoid any error in the weighment.

TPT has also been included by the Shipping Ministry in the circuit of ports along with Mumbai, Marmugoa, New Mangalore and Kochi for calls by cruise vessels. A plan of action is under preparation to attract and promote cruise tourism in the port. The Union Cabinet had also accorded approval for the commencement of ferry service between Tuticorin and Colombo.

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