Union Minister of State for IT, Telecom and Shipping Milind Deora on Thursday said the Union Government had decided to develop Visakhapatnam Port as a hub port.
During a visit to various expansion and modernisation facilities being developed by the Visakhapatnam Port, Mr. Deora said Visakhapatnam had a prominent place on the East Coast.
Earlier, Deora inspected Visakha Container Terminal Private Ltd (VCTPL) during his visit to the port. He was accompanied by Port Chairman Ajeya Kallam, VCTPL COO Capt. Sriram Ravichander and others.
Latest trends
During the visit, Mr. Deora was taken for a terminal visit including a sky ride (lifting with crane up to a height of 30 metre) to have an aerial view of the entire Outer Harbour of Visakhapatnam Port. Mr. Kallam briefed the Minister about the proposed expansion plans of Visakhapatnam Port Trust (VPT).
Capt. Sriram updated latest trends in the container trade, its growth on the East Coast with reference to Visakhapatnam Port.
He also appraised the Minister about the potential of Visakhapatnam as a major transhipment hub.
During the discussions issues such as relaxation of cabotage policy and route rationalisation policy of railways figured prominently to boost Exim trade.
Mr. Deora opined that Visakhapatnam was going to play a key role in the maritime trade of the country in the days to come and promised all support from the government to make Visakhapatnam a hub port.
VPT Deputy Chairman G.V.L. Satya Kumar, Traffic Manager Gopalakrishna, Chief Engineer Ramachandra Rao, Chief Mechanical Engineer Honnakkattee and VCTPL Senior Vice-President R. Ravi Kumar were present.
