The Hindu Business Line : ‘Vizag port set for a quantum leap as projects take off'

New projects, to be completed in 18-24 months, are expected to bring about a marked change in the Vizag port's functioning, says its Chairman, Mr Ajeya Kallam.

Ch.R.S Sarma

The Visakhapatnam port is taking up several major projects to enhance capacity and to gear up for competition from private ports in the vicinity, its Chairman, Mr Ajeya Kallam, said.

In an interview, he said that clearance had been obtained for six public-private partnership (PPP) projects during the past four to five months, the total estimated cost of which would be Rs 1,250 crores.

The projects include development of WQ-6 berth for bulk cargo and EQ-10 berth for liquid cargo in the inner harbour, mechanisation of coal-handling facilities, upgrading of general cargo berth to cater to 2,00,000 DWT vessels, installation of mechanical fertiliser handling facilities at EQ-7 berth and development of WQ-7 and WQ-8 berths with mechanised facilities for alumina, caustic soda and other bulk cargoes.

Six new berths

In all, he said, six more berths would be added. “We have already awarded the contracts for some of the projects and by June-July the rest would also be cleared.

We expect the projects to be completed in 18 to 24 months. It will bring about a marked change in the functioning of the port,” Mr Kallam said.

Dredging work would also be taken up as usual this year and the deepening of the channel to the inner harbour and turning circle to 12.5 metres draft would be finished by October and the third phase (to 14 metres draft) would be taken up soon afterwards, he explained.

Target

In response to a question whether the port would be able to reach the target of 67 million tonnes set by the Union Shipping Ministry this year, he said there may be a shortfall of one or one-and-a-half million tonnes.

The recent strike by the cargo handling division workers for more than two months had little impact on the performance of the port, he asserted.

“In fact, the stevedores said they were much happier during the strike period, engaging private labour,” he said.

Manning scales

Mr Kallam said the port authorities had, in fact, taken a sympathetic view of the grievances of the workers and made concessions to pave the way for an amicable settlement and end to the strike.

“Manning scales were being implemented in accordance with the tribunal directive, with certain modifications, before the strike and we made further modifications to accommodate the workers' demands. However, we expect the unions to be realistic and co-operate with the management in improving the functioning of the port,” he explained.

Gangavaram port

On the performance of the Gangavaram port, he said it was quite creditable to have crossed the 10-million-tonne mark and to aim at 15 million tonnes in the first year of operations. “Competition is good for us. We welcome competition,” he remarked.

He said Vizag port had crossed a cargo throughput of 55 million tonnes till now during the current financial year and was performing very well.