Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) on Monday entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with Venice Port Authority (VPA) based on the principle of friendship and mutual benefits.
The MoU was signed by JNPT chairman L. Radhakrishnan and VPA's Senior Manager Antonio Revedin in the presence of Shipping Minister G.K. Vasan, officials from JNPT, VPA, Chennai and Ennore ports.
As per the MoU, the parties agreed to enhance co-operation and maritime trade; encourage interchange of information in the areas of operations, management and hinterland connections, develop special subjects of co-operation in the field of education and training of port operators, ITC systems, traffic and trade; and enhance bilateral trade relations.
In his address, Mr. Vasan said: “The MoU is an important one for JNPT for enhancing its operations, management, marine construction and human resource development. Italy is not only the nearest European port to JNPT, but also the gateway to Europe. VPA's expertise in cruise shipping would help JNPT.”
On JNPT's future plans, Mr. Radhakrishnan said JNPT currently handled 55 to 60 per cent of India's container traffic involving about 4.5 million TEUs and tonnage of about 70 million.
On teaming up with VPA, he said it had 27 terminals of which seven were commercial, one passenger and 19 private. It had a quay length of 30 km. The port handled two million passengers through cruise shipping, from which India can profit a lot.
Captain Antonio Revedin said that the trade between European countries particularly Northeast Italy, South of Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia and India was gradually increasing. This could create opportunities to set up direct liner services between JNPT and Northern Adriatic Ports' Association (jointly with Trieste, Ravenna, Koper and Rijeka).
