Union Minister for Shipping and Road Transport & Highways and Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation Nitin Gadkari has flagged off the first container mainline vessel from VoC Port (Tuticorin Port). The minister in his address said this will be a game changer in container traffic of South India.
At present containers from Tuticorin to Far East countries viz Malaysia, Singapore, China and Hong Kong are transited by the feeder vessels to Colombo where they are further connected to the mother vessel. With Mainline call being done directly at Tuticorin, there will be saving on account of the transshipment cost.
In the last four years, Tuticorin Port has made investments to the tune of Rs. 1,500 crore towards improvement of infrastructure with the focus to unlock efficiencies at the Port as well as add capacity to reduce logistics cost for EXIM and domestic trade under Sagarmala.
Tuticorin Port being strategically located close to the East West Trade route and with a draft of 16 m is poised to attract more mainline vessels and has the potential to become a transshipment hub of South India.
@EPC World Media
