With all-out efforts being under way to elevate its ranking to third position among major ports after Kandla and Paradip, the Visakhapatnam Port Trust has set in motion an exercise to emerge as a transhipment hub.
The VPT, which ranked fourth by handling a cargo of 65.30 million tonne during 2018-19, has already received 3.8 million tonne more than the corresponding period last year witnessing the highest growth rate among major ports in the country. “We are expecting to handle a throughput of 70 million tonne to take over third position during the current fiscal,” VPT Chairman K. Ramamohan Rao has told The Hindu.
As a preparation to become transhipment hub to handle mainland vessels with an overall length (LOA) of 397 metres to carry 15,000 to 16,000 containers from the present 320 LOA containing 6,000 to 7,000 containers, the VPT conducted simulation studies at FORCE Technology, Singapore, sometime ago which proved the scope for handling bigger size vessels technically viable.
