Kerala - Kollam   

Cargo port to begin functioning soon

Ignatius Pereira

Meeting today to decide date of inauguration

KOLLAM: The date of inauguration of the Kollam Cargo Port is expected to be decided on Monday at a meeting called here by the Government with exporters, importers and others concerned.

Chief Engineer of the Harbour Engineering Department (HED) P.I. Shiekh Pareeth told The Hindu that the meeting would be held at the Government Guesthouse at 11 a.m. The HED was organising the meeting. Labour Minister P.K. Gurudasan would preside over the meeting.

Others attending the meeting are Port Secretary L. Radhakrishnan, Director of Ports Vijayan Pillai, senior customs officers from Kochi, shipping agents from various States, Collector K. Ajayakumar and Kollam SP S. Gopinath.

A majority of the exporters and importers invited were from the cashew sector. Mr. Pareeth said that the date for the inauguration of the cargo port was likely to be decided at the meeting.

"The cargo port is a Rs.44-crore project and Rs.5 crore was spent to meet the construction of the berth. The inaugural cargo to arrive will be a consignment of 4,000 tonnes of timber from Myanmar."

At Monday's meeting, the representative of the Prabhat Group of Companies, which makes the maiden import, would formally inform the date on which the ship carrying the timber consignment would arrive.

The inauguration of the port would be held on that date, Mr. Pareeth said adding that it was not expected to go beyond a month.

A facility for the Customs Department had been arranged near the port. In addition to that, a facility for the functioning of a Customs Office within the port site would also be constructed shortly.

This would become necessary when ships started calling at the port regularly. The State Government had, meanwhile, sanctioned the construction of a transit shed and a warehouse at the port site.

Shipping agents from various parts of the country, who informally inspected the port site, expressed interest in utilising the facility.

"The port has a 116-metre wharf and depth of seven metres which can be increased to 10 metres. Work on the approach road to the port is nearing completion. Talks are also underway for the maiden export from the port," Mr. Pareeth said.

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