Chennai and Kamarajar Ports together have recorded an operating income of over ?2,200 crore and crossed 100 million metric tonnes (MMT) of cargo handling, Sunil Paliwal, chairman, Chennai Port Trust and Kamarajar Port Limited (KPL), said on Thursday.

Describing it as a historic milestone, he said, “We are continuing to upgrade the existing infrastructure in both Chennai and Kamarajar Ports. Regarding Kamarajar Port, we keep adding capacity and improving connectivity and at Chennai Port we focus on better connectivity and storage.”

While Chennai Port handled 54.96 MMT, Kamarajar Port contributed 48.41 MMT for the financial year 2024-25. Both ports together have witnessed a growth of 6.7%.

Mr. Paliwal said, “Chennai Port is the second biggest major port for handling containers after Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority in Mumbai, whereas Kamarajar Port is the energy port for this part of the country. At Chennai Port, the biggest growth has happened with containers. We have seen a 14.7% growth of containers in Chennai Port.” 

While there was 14.7% of growth of container cargo at Chennai Port, the overall growth is 6.5%. This was attributed to a few reasons including shifting of some cargo to KPL and Krishnapatnam and also there was a bit of drop in handling cars as well.

 JP Irene Cynthia,managing director, KPL, said multi-cargo had witnessed a significant growth of 45% at Kamarajar Port.

Long term port for Chennai and this part of the country is going to Kamarajar Port. It has good connectivity and has potential to add further connectivity as there is more land available. We expect that growth will be more in Kamarajar Port and that it could be the main sea hub in this part of the country,” Mr. Paliwal added.

When asked about Hyundai Group’s visit to the city looking to find a shipbuilding facility, Mr. Paliwal said nearly 500 acres of land was required for it and it might not be available here in Chennai. “Some locations are getting identified near VOC port. The land bank is much bigger there,” he said.

Mr. Paliwal detailed about a host of infrastructure upgradation which is in the pipeline for both ports. Be it parking plaza, multi-modal logistics park at Mappedu, development of seafarers club at Chennai Port or a massive car parking and transit parking yards, common user coal terminal capacity optimisation and IOCL captive jetty at Kamarajar Port, several initiatives were underway, he said.

Source: The Hindu 

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