Posted on April 10, 2018
Chennai port has reported a net profit of Rs 32 crore during the financial year 2017-18 against Rs 13 crore in the previous fiscal. Operating surplus was Rs 225 crore against Rs 217 crore in the previous year, a 3.82 per cent increase.
Better financial performance was possible due to higher cargo volume of 51.88 million tonnes (mt) handled during the financial year ended March 31, 2018, against 50.21 mt in the previous year.
The port had surpassed the 48.88 mt target fixed by the Shipping Ministry for 2017-18. It had handled higher cargo volume despite sluggish growth in global trade, P Raveendran, Chairman, Chennai Port Trust, told newspersons.
Of the total volume, container traffic accounted for nearly 30 mt and petroleum products another 13.5 mt. On container trafic, Raveendran said the port, which has two private container terminals, handled 15.49 lakh TEUs (twenty foot equivalent units) in 2017-18 against 14.94 lakh TEUs in the corresponding year, an increase of 3.65 per cent.
On developmental projects, Raveendran said ChPT plans to construct a bunker berth, a multimodal logistics park at Jolarpet and a maritime cluster at Mapeddu, near Sriperumbudur.
He was also hopeful that the stalled Chennai port to Maduravoyal elevated road corridor would be revived during the current financial year. “This project will be a lifeline for the port in future,” he said. L&T has given a draft report on the project to the National Highways Authority of India.
Raveendran said a trial service of coastal movement of containers between Chennai port and Puducherry port had commenced on February 23 by ship Chowgule-8. At present, dredging is going at Puducherry port, and on completion, there would be a regular service between Chennai and Puducherry. This service has the potential to handle nearly 2,000 TEUs a month and will also help in reducing road congestion.
Source: The Hindu BusinessLine
