The New Mangalore Port (NMP) on Monday crossed handling of 1 lakh TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit) of containers during the current financial year. This is a growth of 23% compared to 82,169 TEU as on February 26, 2017.
Till February 26 this year, NMP handled 1,00,666 TEU of containerised cargo. As many as 13 vessels are scheduled to call during the remaining period of the current financial year, according port in-charge chairman Suresh P. Shirwadkar. During the whole of 2016-17, the port handled 94,929 TEU.
Saying that crossing the 1 lakh-mark was a significant milestone for the port, Mr. Shirwadkar noted that they were able to attract much of the containerised traffic from across the State, which hitherto were routed via ports on the east coast, to Mangaluru.
He said the increased handling of coffee, raw cashew, gherkin, machinery, polypropline granules, chemicals, agricultural products, and coastal cargo has contributed immensely to achieving the growth. Proactive business promotion initiatives of the port coupled with the infrastructure and capacity addition, including expansion of container yards, container-handling equipment such as reach stacker, increased number of reefer plug points, concreted roads, simplified documentation, RFID system of admittance, and ease of doing business initiatives have furthered the growth, he added .
These initiatives have yielded positive results in fostering the container movement to the port from the hinterland, as NMP handled just 9,646 TEU in 2005-06. The growth could be sustained on account of increase in frequency of calls by feeder line vessels, competitive ocean freight offered by Main Line Container Operators (MLOs), and the option of three trans-shipment ports that resulted in reduction in transit time.
The Container Corporation of India recently commenced its operation from Inland Container Depot, Bengaluru to NMP, where it has established a railway siding (commissioned on January 31). This will further boost the connectivity and transportation of container traffic through rail, Mr. Shirwadkar said.
