Minister of State for Shipping (Independent Charge), Mansukh Mandaviya on Wednesday reviewed the development activities of Vallarpadam Terminal of Cochin Port. The terminal is envisaged as the first transshipment port of India, managed by the UAE-based Dubai Ports World.
Mandaviya directed officials to chalk out the strategy to tackle the various challenges and actualise the vision of the transshipment hub of India and pioneer hub in South Asia.
The minister said, “We are developing a transshipment facility to ensure that Indian cargo trans-ship through Indian ports. Resolving various issues of Vallarpadam Terminal is one of the top priorities of the Ministry of Shipping.”
A trans-shipment hub is the terminal at the port that handles containers, provides facilities for their temporary storage and transfers them to other ships for their onward journey.
The Kochi International Container Transshipment Terminal (ICTT), locally known as the Vallarpadam Terminal is located strategically on the Indian coastline. It successfully fulfills all the criteria required to develop it as trans-shipment hub including proximity to international sea routes, distance from all Indian feeder ports, feeder connections to all ports on the west and east coast, accessibility to hinterland markets and infrastructure to manage large ships and the capacity to scale up as per requirement.
The Vallarpadam Terminal of Cochin Port is proposed to be developed as the most preferred gateway for South India and a leading transshipment hub in South Asia.
Rs 1.07 Billion Approved for Modern Firefighting Facilities at Kolkata Port In a separate development, Mandaviya also approved Rs 107 Crore for augmentation of firefighting facilities on five jetties of Haldia Dock Complex, Kolkata Port.
The modern firefighting facility will enable the Haldia Dock Complex in the safe handling of the movement of petrochemical products. The existing firefighting facility does not support the handling of liquified petroleum gas (LPG) and other petroleum products as per the guideline of the Oil Industry Safety Directorate (OISD) of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.
LPG and liquified natural gas (LNG) cargo on the Haldia dock is projected to increase shortly. The state-of-the-art firefighting infrastructure will help to manage the petrochemical goods safely and securely at Kolkata Port in compliance with the OISD guidelines.