The Visakhapatnam port will develop a dedicated berth for coastal shipping within six months. Port Chairman M.T. Krishna Babu said the berth would help save time in handling coastal cargo. At present, clearance from customs was necessary for coastal ships along with foreign vessels, which caused a lot of delay in evacuation of cargo.
The berth with a draft of 14 metres would come up at West Quay-10 return end in an area of 300 metres between East Quay-10 and West Quay-8. Due to Cabotage law, foreign vessels were prohibited from lift cargo for discharge between two Indian ports.
Ships with a deadweight tonnage of 40,000 to 45,000 and containers numbering 500 to 1,000 could easily be berthed at the new facility.
Sravan Shipping Services Managing Director G. Sambasiva Rao told The Hindu that the decision would give a fillip to coastal shipping. This was a long-awaited demand from port users. This would be useful for thermal coal loaded at Visakhapatnam for discharge at Chennai and cargo meant for Essar for unloading at Hazira.
Coastal ships, which moved from one Indian port to another, would also sometimes act as feeder vessels for shifting cargo to mother vessels carrying large volumes to global destinations.
Mega projects Work on two major projects finalised by the port was expected to begin soon once few issues were sorted out. Upgradation of existing one and creation of new facility for handling iron ore in the Outer Harbour at an estimated cost of Rs.845 crore had been finalised. The project that had been awarded to Vadinar Oil Terminal Limited, part of Essar Ports Ltd, envisaged handling 23 million tonnes.
The extension of container terminal to enhance capacity by 0.54 million TEU (twenty equivalent units) has been awarded to Visakha Container Terminal at a cost of Rs.633.11 crore.
