First mainline vessel calls at Cochin Port

Kochi, Sep 16 (UNI) Cochin Port has received its first mainline vessel with 'M V Ville De Mars' calling at the Port yesterday from Bandar Abbas Port, Iran and leaving for Port Kelang, Malaysia, today.

A spokesman for the Cochin Port Trust said here today, by receiving this mainline vessel, Cochin Port achieved another milestone in its endeavour to become the maritime gateway to peninsular India.

M V Ville De Mars, a container vessel of Panama flag in the category of mother ship, was owned and operated by mainline operator M/S CMA-CGM. The vessel, with 243 m length, 32 m width and 11.7 m draft had a capacity to carry 2,935 TEUs of containers.

India Gateway Terminal Private Ltd (IGTPL), the terminal operator of Rajiv Gandhi Container Terminal (RGCT) of Cochin Port, achieved productivity levels matching international standards while handling containers on board M V Ville De Mars, he added.

Four ship-to-shore cranes were deployed for the first time at RGCT for transferring containers from the mainline vessel. Handling of two 20 ft containers in a single move was also performed on board this vessel. A record number of 580 containers were handled within two shifts registering a record of 40 moves per hour.

Cochin Port had achieved the status of deep draft port in February 2006, enabling bigger vessels with direct connectivity to different continents to add Cochin to their regular schedule.

The Cochin Port Trust had recently announced 50 per cent concession on vessel related charges for mainline vessels of Gross Registered Tonnage (GRT) 25,000 and above having capacity of 2,500 TEUs or more.

This concession was aimed at achieving direct connectivity to ports in Europe, US and the Far East. Such direct sailings eliminated transhipment of containers from Cochin through other hub ports thereby saving substantial time and money.

The arrival of M V Ville De Mars was the first response to the promotional efforts made by the Cochin Port. With the start of mainline vessels, exporters and importers in the hinterland areas of Cochin Port like Coimbatore, Pollachi, Tiruppur, Erode, Karur, Dindigul, Namakkal and Bangalore and exporters from Kerala would be able to save lot of time and money while transporting their goods, he added.

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