The VO Chidambaranar Port Authority in Thoothukudi is reviving the nine-year-old Outer Port project by inviting Expression of Interest (EoI) to develop it on design, building, finance, operate and transfer basis. The outer port container development will have a capacity of 4 million twenty foot equivalent units (TEU).
In 2013, the then Congress government announced the development of the project at a cost of Rs 7,500 crore in the Union Budget. However, when the BJP formed the government in 2014, the focus was on the development of a transshipment container terminal at Vizhinjam in Kerala and the possibility of exploring a similar transshipment port at Enayam in Kanyakumari – though the latter did not materialise.
The Center has now revived the Outer Port project at VOC port at a cost of Rs 7,200 crore. This includes breakwater costing ₹1,020 crore; berth (₹760 crore); yard development and other waterfront facilities (₹580 crore); The EOI document states that mechanization (₹3,230 crore) and dredging (₹1,390 crore).
infra to build
The concessionaire/PPP operator will have to construct breakwaters on the northern side (3,450 m length) and southern side (2,050 m length), construct two berths of 1,000 m quay length and mechanize the berths. To handle container cargo, berth and outer harbor basin with capital dredging (-)16.9 m and approach channel (-)17.4 m up to 16 m draft vessels.
The EoI document states that the concessionaire will decide the tariff for future PPP concessionaires based on the market conditions as per the Tariff Guidelines 2021 issued last December.
The container traffic at VOC Port has increased to 7.81 lakh TEUs in 2020-21 from 6.92 lakh TEUs in 2018-19. A recent traffic forecasting study conducted by consultants shows that future traffic growth at the port will depend heavily on container traffic. This required the development of an external port.
The two existing container terminals – PSA Sickle and South India Gateway – can accommodate vessels up to 320 meters with a draft restriction of 11.7 metres. Berth 8 can accommodate vessels up to 310 m with a draft of 14.2 m. It can handle container ships of less than 5,000 TEU.
However, with the increase in the size of container ships globally, the infrastructure needs to be increased to handle the 22,000 TEU vessels, which need a draft of around 20m, said an industry source.
‘Give better facilities’
“Thoothukudi is ideally located at the southern tip of the East-West Shipping Corridor,” said Joe Villavarayar, head of the Tuticorin Port Transport and Equipment Owners Association. He said that Sri Lanka is facing a lot of uncertainties affecting the operations at Colombo port and Vizhinjam is not an all weather port and having only 20 meters draft, the Outer Port project with large infrastructure compares the two. can provide better facilities.
“By not developing the port for a long time, we lost all the cargo to Colombo port and the country also lost valuable foreign exchange as most of the Indian cargo from South India is being taken to Colombo port,” he said. Told. “The all-weather port at sea should be implemented at a fast pace. We have high potential.”
“The Outer Ports project should provide better infrastructure than both Colombo and Vizhinjam ports. Only then can we become an option to dominate the region,” said a port official.
Published on
12 June 2022