The Union Minister of Ports, Shipping & Waterways, Sarbananda Sonowal dedicated projects worth Rs. 216 crore in Visakhapatnam to the nation, including state-of-the-art Vizag International Cruise Terminal (VICT) on Monday.
The Minister also inaugurated Covered Storage Shed-2 in Port area, a Truck parking terminal as well as one Oil refinery berth to boost the capacity of the Vizag Port (VPA) towards becoming a regional hub of cruise and cargo traffic in the near future.
Speaking on the occasion, Sonowal said, “ Our ports led development approach is an important element to realise this vision and we remain at work to modernise, equip and enable our ports to become a vital lynchpin of development of the region.”
Before 2014, the capacity stood at 821 MMT. Now, ithe cargo movement capacity to 1681 MMT by 12 major ports more than doubling our capacity in a span of nine years, he added.
The time taken to unload cargo from a ship was 44 hours before 2014. This was reduced to 26 hours now, the Minister said, according to a release.