VO Port to set up second container terminal

S Natarajan, Chairman of the VO Chidambaranar Port informed that the management plans to set up a 6 lakh Twenty Foot Equivalent Units (TEU) container terminal in order raise the cargo handling capacity of the port.

The terminal project may cost Rs 312.23 crore and concessionaire would offer gross revenue share of 55.19 percent.

This would be the second container terminal of the port and this is intended to meet the requirement of EXIM traders, he said.

The port feels the need for setting up another terminal as the container handling capacity of existing terminal had reached its saturation level.

Therefore, the port management is converting the eighth berth into another container terminal with a draft of 12.80 meter. The terminal would commence interim operations by deploying gantry cranes within two months and its full-fledged operations would commence from the beginning of 2014.

With this, the container handling capacity of the Port would be increased to one million TEU. EXIM traders, particularly from Tirupur, Coimbatore, Karur and Erode would be benefitted by the additional container terminal. The container traffic through the Port at the existing terminal had already crossed its handling capacity of 4.17 lakh TEU to 4.77 lakh TEU in 2011-12.