Visakhapatnam Port Trust chalks out Rs.3,000-crore plan

The Visakhapatnam Port Trust (VPT) has outlined a Rs 3,000-crore expansion-cum-modernization plan aimed at enhancing the port´s capacity by nearly 50 per cent. The port will spend a fourth of the total planned investment, while it will seek private partners to invest the rest by way of public-private partnerships (PPP)
´Private players Vedanta, Essar, SEW and ABG were finalised as the partners who would invest on modernising cargo-handling,´said VPT chairman MT Krishna Babu on the sidelines of an East Coast Maritime Business Summit last week. With a cargo-handling a capacity of 85 million tonnes (mt), VPT is the fifth-largest Indian port. The port plans to raise a capacity to 125 mt and become the third-largest port in the country over the next three years. Babu said that VPT is unable to utilise more than 70 per cent of its existing capacity.