Sunday, Feb 01, 2004
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By Our Staff Reporter
CHENNAI, JAN. 31. The Union Ministry of Shipping, which is targeting around Rs. 85,000 crores of private investment in maritime projects under its `Sagar Mala' programme, is keen on the ports paying greater attention to marketing their facilities and resources. Instead of expecting consumers to come to them, the ports must ``go out'' and market themselves, D.T. Joseph, Secretary to the Ministry, said at a function at the Ennore port here today. Envisaging a greater role for local elected representatives in such initiatives, he said one of the complaints of the Ministry was that the ports were not marketing themselves enough. Everyone ``should work as a team to make the port an engine of growth,'' Mr. Joseph said, after the local MLA and MP sought an increase in the social welfare activities of the Ennore port. ``Money will not come for social sector activities,'' if the port was not marketed, he said, commending the growth and facilities of the Ennore port, only corporatised facility of its kind in the country. Ennore was poised to be the model for other ports in the country, the Secretary said, while expressing concern at the time taken — ``35 to 60 days'' — at the Chennai port to despatch an iron ore vessel. (Speaking to The Hindu , a senior official of the Chennai Port Trust attributed this problem to an increased demand for iron ore from China and the availability of limited rakes to move the product.) Inaugurating an administrative building, a signal tower, a water supply scheme for the port and laying the foundation stone for creation of a temporary iron ore handling facility, Shatrughan Sinha, Union Minister of Shipping, said: ``The Ennore port is living upto our expectations.'' It proposed to set up facilities for handling other cargo, including petroleum products and containers — at present it handled thermal coal. A total investment of Rs. 1,000 crores, most of it from the private sector, was proposed in the port, which was targeting to handle 40 million tonnes of bulk cargo by 2006-07.
Sinha's assurance
Mr. Sinha assured A.S. Kannan, MLA, and A. Krishnaswamy, MP, that their demands that the port lay a motorable road to a nearby temple, construct a community/marriage hall in the neighbourhood and offer more jobs to locals, ``were accepted.'' On their demand for rechristening the port, Mr. Sinha advised them to ``decide between yourself'' on the name and ``come with one voice.'' While the MLA said it should be called Kattupalli port, Mr. Krishnaswamy appealed for naming it after C. Annadurai, former Chief Minister. The Chairman and Managing Director of the port, M. Raman, said the three-year-old maritime facility had initiated measures to establish terminals for marine liquids, iron ore and containers under the public private-partnership route. It also proposed to handle passenger cars.
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