Prime Minister inaugurates Rs 3,200 cr ICTT at Cochin Port: Economic Crimes, 11 Feb, 2011
News from 4 days ago:"With the building of this terminal, our exporters can now access mainline containers vessel calling at one of the most well-located ports of India," Singh said after inaugurating the first phase of the over Rs 3,200 crore terminal under the Cochin Port expansion project, making it the first port in the country that can berth very large vessels.
Dubai Ports World built the terminal at a cost of around Rs 1,600 crore. The terminal can handle up to 1 million TEUs (twenty foot equivalent units) of cargo per annum. In addition, another Rs 1,700 crore was invested on providing road and rail connectivity to the terminal.
"Today, about 60 per cent of India's exports and imports containers are transshipped through ports like Singapore and Colombo. This transshipment through ports outside the country involves an additional expenditure of USD 300 per container and an extra 7-10 days of transit time," he said.
Singh said a liquefied natural gas ( LNG )) import and re-gasification facility would also be constructed at Kochi by March, 2012.
Stating that construction of the terminal was the centrepiece of a comprehensive plan to develop Kochi as an economic and logistical hub in the region, he said the project area has been declared as a Special Economic Zone .
"A link road has been built to connect Vallarpadam with NH-47 and NH-17. The Railway Vikas Nigam Ltd has completed the 8.5-km rail link that connects the terminal to the railway network," he said.
Besides, the navigation channel is being deepened. This is a challenging task involving the removal of nearly 26 million cubic metres of soil.
CPT- DP World dispute continues: Express Buzz, 7 Feb, 2011
With only a couple of days remaining for the inauguration of the International Container Transshipment Terminal (ICTT) at Vallarpadam, confusion still prevails over who should provide security for the terminal.
The Cochin Port Trust (CPT) has decided to impose a container cess from each container coming to Vallarpadam to meet the security expenses of the terminal.
Recently, the security of the terminal was entrusted to the CISF. This proposal was strongly opposed by DP World, as according to the earlier agreement, the security of the terminal lies with them.
DP World was of the opinion that the security of the terminal should be entrusted to a private agency according to the agreement.
CISF had been entrusted with the security of the terminal according to a decision taken by Port Trust chairman N Ramachandran. However, DP World was not ready to meet the security charges of the CISF.
It was in this background that a decision was taken to impose a cess from each container coming to the terminal.
Some more data from Dredging Today:
India: ICTT at Vallarpadam to open this month
The INR32.50bn ($716.5m) terminal is expected to reduce the country’s dependence on foreign ports to handle transshipments.
The first phase of the terminal is expected to have a capacity of one million teu, and will consist of six Super-Post-Panamax quay cranes and an on-dock railhead serviced by a rail-mounted support crane.
DP World (Subcontinent) plans to begin work on the second phase of the project soon, according to ANI.