Container cargo handling at the Azhikkal port here will now be easier with the arrival of a reach stacker that can transport a container for short distances and pile them in rows.
The new reach stacker can stack the cargo containers in three rows. Experimental loading using the reach stacker was held on the Western India Plywoods Ltd. factory premises at Valapattanam here on Wednesday.
The Rs.2.8 crore German-made reach stacker can lift a container cargo weighting 40 tonnes.
Senior Port Conservator M. Sudheer Kumar told The Hindu that the vehicle could stack containers in three rows up to a height of 40 ft. This would make container handling at the port easier and quicker, he said.
Now, containers from ships were shifted directly to trucks using a crane, he added. He also said that the port would have full-fledged facilities by September when a container-handling crane would be installed there. The Rs.17-crore crane could carry the containers from vessel to the berth, he added.
Warehouse
The cargo movement at the Azhikkal port is expected to be smoother with the construction of a warehouse for keeping the containers. Steps were now under way for starting the construction work, port officials said. They also said that dredging of the basin and channel of the port would also begin soon by the Kerala State Marine Development Corporation.
The coastal shipping service launched at the port has raised hopes about developing it into an intermediate port in the State. Business and trading community here exuded the hope that full-fledged facilities at the port would attract coffee exporters in neighbouring Kodagu in Karnataka who were now using the ports in Mangalore and Kochi. It would be easier for the exporters to transport coffee from Kodagu to the Azhikkal port, they noted.
The port mainly handles outgoing cargo, including plywood, cement, granite ballast, and laterite bricks, mostly to Lakshadweep Islands.
