Five major ports poised to cross 50 MT in cargo handling

New Delhi, Feb 20 (UNI) Shipping, Road Transport and Highways Minister T R Baalu today called upon chairpersons of major ports to vigorously take up the execution of projects under the National Maritime Development Programme (NMDP) to ensure timely completion of the ambitious programme by 2011-12.

Mr Baalu instructed Port chairpersons to prepare a work-plan, undertake weekly review of the NMDP projects and bring the problem areas to his notice so that corrective action cand be taken expeditiously.

The minister also called for enhanced security measures for the major ports in the wake of possibility of terrorist attacks on vital installations. ''Modern equipment and latest technology should be deployed for container cargo scanning to ensure security arrangements, apart from the facilities in place for the custom purposes,'' he added.

Mr Baalu, who was reviewing the performance of major ports at a meeting here, expressed satisfaction over the fact that five major ports were for the first time poised to cross the 50 million tonnes of traffic handling during the current fiscal year, These ports are: Vishakhapatnam, Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkata and Kandla. The 12 Major Ports have handled 378.89 MT of traffic during April-January 2007 as against 348.05 during the same period of the previous financial year which is almost a nine per cent increase.

The minister asked the officials to prepare a compilation of projects pending with various arms of the government like the Planning Commission, the Ministry of Law and the Ministry of Finance and said that efforts would be made to get clearance for such projects expeditiously.

With regard to the Haldia Dock System which is a riverine port and is facing the problem of regular flow of siltation causing deterioration in draught availability, Mr Baalu directed that the issue should be addressed under the River Regulator Measures Scheme.

It was also informed at the meeting that a Feasibility Report was being taken up for setting up of a modern deep sea port facility as part of Kolkata Port to meet the enhanced demands of the international trade, which is on the upswing.

The Mumbai Port Trust Chairperson informed that the process had been initiated for the appointment of a consultant for establishing a new cruise shipping facility near Gateway of India under the NMDP.

The Cochin Port Trust Chairperson gave a detailed account of the pace of implementation of the International Cruise Terminal. The Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust Chairperson informed that the ongoing project of improvement of road connectivity would be completed by December this year.

The chairperson of New Mangalore Port Trust informed that the NMDP project for deepening of a channel and lagoon to increase draught from 15.1 mt to 17 mt. was being undertaken.

''Geo-physical studies have already been completed and the techno-feasible studies are under way,'' he said.

UNI