The recommendations submitted by a committee headed by Captain Subhash Kumar that looked into the oil spill that occurred off the city in January have been accepted, said Chairman of Kamarajar Port Ltd. (KPL) M.A. Bhaskarachar. The committee also gave recommendations for improving operational efficiency.
“We will be augmenting the resources [to better the performance]. We are drafting a Standard Operating Procedure which will elaborate in great detail the things to be carried out to prevent [disasters such as oil spill]. They are some measures we have already started implementing too. For instance, Vessel Traffic Management System (VTMS) will be handled by mariners. Also, we plan to hire regular pilots and instead of on contract basis,” he said. Mr. Bhaskarachar said a sum of ₹60 lakh had been claimed for the expenses and damage incurred owing to the oil spill.
Cargo handling
The handling of cargo has fallen from 32.2 million tonnes in 2015-16 to 30.02 million in 2016-17. “The decrease was due to the reduction in the usage of coal by Tangedco,” he added. Butthe port had handled 2,27,581 units of automobiles this year when compared to 2,16,922 the previous year.
To further increase the port capacity from 32 million tonnes to 86 million tonnes, they have made an investment plan for ₹7,300 crore.
“We also plan to expand the storage of cars by adding space for another 10,000. With that, we can provide for about 30,000 cars,” he added.
He said, they had plans to widen the existing two-lane road starting from Vallur junction to the Kamarajar Port entrance to a four- lane stretch.
