While Sri Lanka is set to aggressively see through its port expansion projects, Indian officials aren’t too worried about the competition it might pose. Says a senior official with the Department of Shipping: “With our new container trans-shipment terminal coming up at Vallarpadam near Kochi , we will be making sure that all the inbound and outbound container trans-shipment traffic that earlier went to Sri Lanka will now come to India.”
The National Maritime Development Programme envisages doubling of the cargo handling capacity of the 12 major Indian ports to 820 million tonnes per annum by fiscal 2011-12.
Creating new capacity
• Sri Lanka Port Authority sets ball rolling for expansion of Colombo Port with South Harbour project
• Four terminals planned, each with a capacity of 2.4 million TEUs per annum
• $300 million investment in Phase 1and $700 million in Phase 2of South Harbour project
• When completed, capacity of Colombo port to more than triple to around 12 million TEUs
• Will put pressure on south Indian ports, which have an average draught of10 metres against 18 metres proposed under South Harbour
Epaper
Newsletter
Stocks
Weather
Horoscope
