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The new Chairman of Visakhapatnam port, M T Krishna Babu, who assumed charge here on Monday morning, said that projects worth Rs 2,500-3,000 crore were in execution and after their completion, the capacity would rise to 120 million tonnes from the present 80 mt and there would be no looking back for the port.
He told presspersons that many of the projects were taken up in the public-private partnership (PPP) mode in accordance with the guidelines laid down by the Government of India. These projects would enable the port to reduce pollution and also to face competition from the private ports.
He said Visakhapatnam was being developed as a landlord port. "According to the maritime agenda of the Government of India, Rs 10,000 crore should be spent on several projects in Viskhapatnam port between 2010 and 2020. However, internal accruals of the port alone would not be sufficient and therefore the PPP mode was chosen," he said.
Krishna Babu said that dredging in the outer harbour had been completed and with the modernisation of the general cargo berth, bigger vessels could be handled in the outer harbour.
"However, we have to complete the dredging in the inner harbour as well. The dredging work upto the turning circle may be completed by August, but the remaining dredging work would take six months at least and we expect it to be completed by December. Then panamax vessels can be handled in the inner harbour. We will then concentrate on the marketing aspects," he said.
Krishna Babu said pollution was another critical area the port was looking at, as it was located near the city. "We do not want to cause any inconvenience to the public. We are mechanising the handling of the cargo and taking all pollution control measures and therefore pollution would be reduced to the minimum. We will monitor the pollution control measures on a weekly basis and take the requisite steps," he said.
He said that because of the ongoing projects, cargo handling had suffered to an extent during the past two or three years at the port and even during the current year, there may be some impact. But from 2015-16, the port's performance would really gather momentum and it would certainly be one of the top two or three ports in the country, he added.
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