The Hindu : Kerala / Kochi News : Eventful year awaits Cochin Port Trust

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Friday, Dec 25, 2009
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Eventful year awaits Cochin Port Trust

Staff Reporter

The commissioning of the container terminal will be a red-letter day for the organisation.

KOCHI: As curtains come down on 2009, an eventful year for the Cochin Port Trust, it is looking forward to an even more action-packed year, a year in which the long-awaited International Container Transshipment Terminal (ICTT) will be commissioned.

The first phase of the project is scheduled for commissioning in March with the rail infrastructure in place and the road link partially completed.

The port rang in 2009 with the inauguration of the e-port facility, making Kochi the first major port in the country to go online for all its transactions. A team from the New Mangalore Port was here last week to study the way Kochi went about establishing the facility and to evaluate its effectiveness.

The commissioning of a 110-kv sub station within the Willingdon Island premises early this year sets at rest fears about quality power supply for the port.

The completion of the reconstruction of the Mattancherry wharf and the acquisition of two new tugs—‘Vallarpadam’ and ‘Vypeen’ added more teeth to the port operations.

During 2009, the Kochi port saw unprecedented activities on the cruise business front close on the heels of the hosting of the prestigious Volvo Ocean Race in December 2008.

The flow of other cruise liners to Kochi has been uninterrupted during the year with 23 luxury liners having called at the port since April.

Meanwhile, nearly 90 per cent of the work on the terminal for the ICTT, being built by operator India Gateway Terminals Limited (IGTL), is complete. Work on the rail link to Vallarpadam, being executed by Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL), is more than 90 per cent complete though work on the National Highway link, being executed by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), has lagged for various reasons.

The commissioning of the rail link to Vallarpadam will also see Kochi becoming home to the longest rail bridge in India. At 4.62 km, the bridge over the Vembanad backwaters linking Vallarpadam to Edappally, will replace the Nehru Setu on river Sone in Bihar, as the longest rail bridge in India.

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