Friday, September 28, 2012

Opening Krishnapatanam Integrated Container Terminal - Another gateway for India's Eastern coast


Krishnapatnam Port (KPCL), An ariel view
Three billion US$, integrated Container Terminal on Krishnapatnam port on the banks of Upputeru River is indeed a good development for India's maritime trade. This will not only ease the congestion at Chennai Port, which is just 190 km away, but also provide storage and wide facilities for business.

There are two important things, I like say about this port. First one is - this terminal can act as a gateway for Andra Pradesh, Southern Orissa, Eastern Karnataka and probably Chhattisgarh and Northern Tamilnadu as well. Connecting these states with international shipping routes and East Asia, South East Asia and Far East Asia will definitely give a push economy. Utilities of ships for ‘port to port’ and ‘coast to coast’ trade and passenger services will definitely remove the extra burden from India’s congested roads. Unfortunately we are yet to develop coastal shipping routes for passenger traffic. Government new policy of developing Inland Waterways may provide certain momentum in this area as well.

Second point is the private equity in this project. Andra Pradesh government brought in Hyderabad based CVR group and offered a 50 year concession. This is one of the good examples where private equity working in sync with government’s determination provided good results. Hope that other state governments too will drop their unreasonable opposition to private capital.

Port faculties and maritime trade

This port is well connected with India’s rail and road network. Five Super Post-Panamax Quay Cranes at the port which can handle safe working load of 41 MTs (single) / 65 MTs (twin) / 85 MTs (underhook) and has an outreach of 23 rows across the vessel. Mother container vessels of up to 8000 TEU will also find this port suitable for them.

The total cargo handled in August (2012) stands at 1.12 million tonnes. In the financial year 2011-12, KPCL handled around 10.45mn tonnes of cargo by rail (an impressive improvement over its previous years tally of 7.7mn tonnes). With 18 meters KPCL is one of the deepest draft ports in India.

There is no doubt that, Krishnapatnam will offer a good competition for Chennai, L&T Kattupalli etc. Hope that KPCT will be able to write a golden chapter in India's maritime trade.

Sajeev.

References

1. The Hindu
2. Wikipedia
3. Krishnapatnam Port

Photo Courtesy: Krishnapatnam Port Company Limited (KPCL).

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