V.O. Chidambaranar Port has surpassed the cargo handling target of 36 million tonnes set by the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways on Tuesday, 17 days ahead of current fiscal.
An official statement said the Port handed 36.03 million tonnes of cargo during this financial year up to March 14 and has achieved a growth of 11.35% than the previous financial year despite disruptions in global supply chain.
The major commodities that have witnessed considerable growth are construction materials (67.41%), thermal power plant coal for NTPL (63.16%), limestone (51.72%), sulphuric acid (37.34%), palm oil (35.55%), industrial coal (25.08%) and thermal power plant coal for Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (12.80%).
The major factors that have contributed to the increased cargo handling activity are bulk cargo transhipment, implementation of preferential berthing scheme, memorandum of understanding-based customer retention, attraction of ad-hoc container mainline vessel calls, increased coastal movement of salt and implementation of ease of doing business initiatives.
Port Chairman T.K. Ramachandran said the volumes were bouncing back in all forms of cargo, and hence VOC Port would achieve greater milestones in the coming years.
Source : thehindu
