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Krishnapatnam Port Company Limited (KPCL), India’s largest all-weather, deep water port, located on the east coast of the country, has confirmed that the last financial year, 2017-18, was an all-time record breaker. Overall the port handled 45 million tonnes of cargo, 25% higher than the preceding 12 months.
In particular, KPCL highlights that fact that it achieved an 88% rise in container throughput, which jumped to 481,408 teu up from 255,439 teu in 2016-17. Vinita Venkatesh, director, Krishnapatnam Port Container Terminals (KPCT), said: “The cargo spurt resulted partly from the growth of transshipment volumes at KPCT, as Indian flag operators like Shreyas Shipping provided transshipment feeder services from KPCT to Kolkata, Haldia, Vizag and Paradeep.”
KPCT has ambitions to become a coastal cargo hub on the east coast of the country. With this aim in mind the terminal has recently set up a dedicated coastal berth to handle the growing volumes of coastal container traffic and reducing delays to this type of business.
The port’s bulk traffic rose to over 37 million tonnes, with coal, iron ore and granite to the fore. The number of vessels visiting the port rose by 22% to 1290 vessel calls in 2017-18 as against 1061 vessels registered during the same period, last year. With the Indian government’s push towards solar energy, the port has also witnessed a sharp rise in solar related shipments.
Further growth in the current financial year is being targeted by KPCL. The aim, the company says, is to handle 52 million tonnes of bulk cargo and 2 million teu of container traffic in this fiscal year. The port plans to make US$ 3 billion of investments in infrastructure, including a second phase of expansion now underway.
Reflecting on the year’s performance Anil Yendluri, director and chief executive, said, “Favourable government policies and our handling of new cargo such as sand, steel products and agri-commodities have added to the growth in our shipments. Cargo in Andhra-Telangana, north and east Karnataka and eastern parts of Maharashtra which were earlier going to other ports have switched to Krishnapatnam port.” The port has benefited from improved rail connectivity and a new service by rail to Nagpur, Maharashtra, beginning this May 2018, is expected to help generate further growth in shipments.
