The Hindu Business Line : Severe congestion at Tuticorin port

There is a severe congestion at Tuticorin port. Twenty vessels were waiting outside the port this morning, and ten more expected to arrive in the next three days.

Waiting vessels are carrying cargo such as logs, rock phosphate, wheat, granite and copper concentrate.

"This is the first time in the last four-and-a-half years that such a situation has happened in the port," according to Mr N.K. Raghupathy, Chairman, Tuticorin Port Trust.

"We were working ahead of time in the last five years. However, the present situation is putting too much pressure on the port's performance. We are handling more than our capacity," he told Business Line.

Except for coal and oil jetties, the capacity utilisation at all other berths were over 100 per cent, Mr Raghupathy said.

Handling capacity

In the last 21 days of this month, the port handled 12.06 lakh tonnes of cargo compared with 9.35 lakh tonnes last year - around 30 per cent increase. The port is handling around 80,000 tonnes a day compared to the capacity to handle around 55,000 tonnes a day, he said.

"We are growing at a rapid pace, and we need to speed up our development activities at the port," he said.

The port trust procured three high capacity cranes for around Rs 20 crore and issued tender for two wharf cranes. It recently procured a 45-tonne Bollard Pull Tug — M.T. Tuticorin — from Tebma Shipyards Ltd, Mr Raghupathy said.

The port trust would take up construction of the ninth berth at a cost of Rs 46.6 crore. The Kolkata-based ITD Cementation would construct the berth and the foundation stone for this would be laid on December 10, he said.