Vizag port surpasses yearly handling figures a month in advance

Visakhapatnam, Mar 1 (UNI) Continuing with its record performance for the sixth year in succession, the Port of Visakhapatnam, the largest cargo handling port among the 11 major ports in the country, has achieved handling of 501.51 lakh tonnes of cargo a full month ahead of the current fiscal.

This was better than the annual handling of 501.47 lakh tonnes achieved last year, which worked out to an increase of 11.35 per cent on the yearly basis.

A record quantity of 12,221 metric tonnes of Granular Urea was discharged yesterday from the East Quay-1 berth from the vessel M V Kallisto, bettering the previous best discharge of 11,025 mt clocked on September 27, 2004, a Visakhapatnam Port Trust release said here today.

Krishak Bharati Cooperative Ltd of Noida imported this Urea cargo.

VPT chairman K Ratna Kishore had said recently that the port had appointed IPA as consultant to prepare a feasibility report on the proposed mechanised handling system at the General Cargo Berth at a cost of Rs 80 crore. This was to mainly mechanise the imported cocking coal cargo handling which is one of the major cargo the port handles.

On the proposed development of private ports in its vicinity at Kakinada and Gangavaram, he said, this would not affect VPT's performance as healthy competition would lead to the port improve its performance further.

UNI RS ROY 2114