Addressing the employees on the occasion of the national maritime day, chairman H L Kadlabju said: ``The Port of Kandla has maintained its position as number one port among all the major ports of India this year also. You may be aware that the port has been number one for consecutive two years.''

Saying that this was a major achievement, he said ``Nobody can forget Kandla's Black Day, June 9, 1998, when a devastating cyclone hit the Port causing extensive damage to lives and property. Nearly 1,000 human lives were lost including five of our Port employees. Apart from the loss to the properties of the entire Kandla complex, the Port also suffered huge loss to its property, valued at about Rs.76 crores.'''

The Port has been able to handle a record traffic of 40.64 million tonnes during the year 1998-99,which is higher by 1.74 lakh tonnes, as compared tolast year.

Speaking about KPT's achievements, Kadlabju said the approved outlay for plan schemes for the year 1997-98 was Rs.85.08 crores. ``The actual expenditure of Rs.50.90 crores, around 60% amount has been spent. During the year 1998-99 approved out lay for plan schemes is Rs.66.87 crores and actual expenditure is Rs.46.19 crores around 70 percent amount has been spent, which is higher by 10 per cent as compared to last year.''

As part of KPT's social welfare activities, kadlabbju said that since the cyclone victims were sheltered in the Temporary Rehabilitation Centre in the Green Belt area the Port Trust Board has agreed to provide land for their permanent shelter. ``All efforts are being made to provide the requisite support for this purpose,'' he said.

``We are keen to retain our position as number one Port in the country and also in order to meet future challenges, Kandla Port Trust management, in general,and its apex decision making body, the board of trustees, in particular, are emphasisingexpansion of infrastructure and enhancement of the existing facilities.''

The KPT is working hard in this direction. The construction of the 8th cargo berth, which has commenced during December, 1996 was scheduled to be completed in December, 1999. The construction cost of this project is nearly Rs.50 crores, and the existing dry cargo handling capacity of 7.7 million tonnes of the port will be increased by 1.35 million tonnes per annum. Now, the berth stands commissioned in March, 1999 itself.

The development and construction of cargo berths 9, 10, 11 and 12 have also been approved and each berth will be erected separately in a phased manner from internal resources of the Port Trust. Accordingly, a provision of Rs.5 crores for each berth has been provided in the annual plan, 1999-2000.

``By the completion of four more cargo berths, it is expected that the cargo handling capacity of the Port will be enhanced by 4 lakhs tonnes per year.''

Deputy chariman vipul mitra informing about the KPT's futureplans said the port was involved in construction of additional storage godowns in the cargo jetty area, conversion of virtual jetties into permanent jetties, construction of a multi-purpose berth at Vadinar and development of a container terminal.

For providing supporting infrastructure and other facilities the Kandla Port Trust has taken various initiatives to provide the required supporting infrastructure facilities and the important initiatives in this direction are being taken.

Mitra said the construction of a multi-purpose hall and abour amenity centre was under way. ``The conversion of national highway between free trade zone and west gate of port into four lanes is also being considered with the national highway authority.''

besides, a truck parking complex at Kandla and conversion of Samakhiali Palanpur railway line from meter gauge to broad gauge have also been proposed.

In order to mitigate the problem of heavy traffic between Kandla and Gandhidham, need has been felt for widening theKandla-Kharirohar Road into four lanes. The board of trustees, in its meeting held on December 19, 1998, has principally approved to entrust the work of widening the Kandla-Kharirohar Road into four lances from Gandhidham National Highway NO 8-a to old kandla.