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Karaikal port will be ready by January, says Minister

PUDUCHERRY: The first phase of the construction work for the new port in Vanjur at Karaikal will be completed ahead of the scheduled time, according to Health Minister E. Valsaraj, who also holds the Port portfolio.

“The private operator has promised to complete the project by January 2009, though they had initially planned to operationalise the port by June 2009,” Mr. Valsaraj told The Hindu.

The first phase of the project, taken up at a cost of Rs. 350 crore, was fast progressing, he said, adding that the operator had promised to expedite the work so as to complete it ahead of the scheduled time. Officials in the Port Department said of the two cargo berths planned in the first phase, work had been completed for constructing the first jetty. The two jetties were planned to handle coal and general cargo with a total capacity of four million tonnes, officials said.

Of the 8.9 million cubic meters of sand to be removed for cargo vessels having 30,000 to 45,000 dead weight tonnes to operate from the port, up to June dredging work had been completed to remove 1.8 million cubic meters of sand, they said.

In addition to the dredger brought from China for removing the sand, the operator would soon put into service two more dredgers to speed up the work, Mr. Valsaraj said.

The officials said the private operator planned to approach the Southern Railway to give rail connectivity to the port when the Railways take up the work for laying Karaikal-Nagore line.

The second phase of the project, for handling liquid cargo and a container terminal, would be taken up only after studying the traffic volume, the Minister said. As per the Memorandum of Understanding signed with the developer, the private player based in Chennai, has to give a royalty of 2.6 per cent of gross revenue to the government, he added.

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