V. O. Chidambaranar Port (VOC Port) handled 36.58 million tonnes of cargo and 6.97 lakh TEUs during financial year 2017-18, the latter being a new record.
Traffic performance
During 2017-18, V.O. Chidambaranar Port Trust handled cargo traffic of 365.83 lakh tonnes against the previous year’s achievement of 384.63 lakh tonnes, registering a decrease of 4.89 per cent. Imports accounted for 261.71 lakh tonnes (-6.52 per cent) and exports for 104.12 lakh tonnes (-0.51 per cent).
The port registered a record throughput of 6,97,631 TEUs of containers in 2017-18, clocking a growth of 8.65 per cent over the previous year’s container traffic of 6,42,103 TEUs.
When compared to the financial year 2016-17, cargoes that have shown considerable increase are containerised cargo 8.65 per cent (55,528 TEUs), limestone 22.57 per cent (2.50 lakh tonnes), palm oil 65.23 per cent (1.40 lakh tonnes), timber logs 45.90 per cent (1.32 lakh tonnes) and clinkers134.68 per cent (1.05 lakh tonnes).
The port has also seen a phenomenal growth of 33.11 per cent in coastal cargo traffic during 2017-18 by handling 99.72 lakh tonnes, over 74.92 lakh tonnes during 2016-17.
The port has also seen improved operational performance. The average pre-berthing time has decreased considerably from 1.98 days during 2016-17 to 1.27 days in 2017-18.
Average turnaround time of ships has come down from 4.40 days during 2016-17 to 2.69 days during 2017-18.
Average ship berth day output increased from 10,456 tonnes during 2016-17 to 11,961 tonnes during 2017-18.
In 2017-18, there were 1,482 ship calls in the port, down by 10.83 per cent from the 1,662 calls during 2016-17. The fewer vessel calls illustrate that much of the cargo coming into the port is arriving in larger ships.
Financial performance
VOC Port’s operating income amounted to Rs 622.75 crore during 2017-18 as against Rs 597.93 crore the previous year, and the operating surplus was Rs 372.56 crore as against Rs 350.02 crore in 2016-17. The net surplus after tax was Rs 117.88 crore as against Rs 117.72 crore. The operating ratio of 40.17 per cent is one the best among the Major Ports.
Projects
During 2017-18, the port awarded the project for dredging in front of coastal berth at a cost of Rs 96.33 crore. The project was completed in April 2018.
The port has also completed construction of North Cargo berth-II for handling bulk cargoes (capacity: 7 MTPA), conversion of 8th berth as container terminal on BOT basis (capacity:7.2 MTPA), construction of dedicated berth for handling coastal cargo (Capacity:1 MTPA), deployment of additional harbour mobile cranes at III and IV berths under PPP mode (capacity:4.36 MTPA), construction and maintenance of truck parking terminal at the port land opposite to Fisheries College (Sagarmala project), road connectivity to Hare island and procurement of two mooring launches, totalling 7 key projects at a cost of Rs 744.93 crore. The resultant capacity addition will be 19.56 million tonnes per annum.
Some of the major projects that are in progress are upgradation of CJ-I and II at a cost of Rs 97.76 crore, (capacity addition: 18 MTPA), development of shallow draught berth for handling construction materials through PPP mode at a cost of Rs 65.37 crore (capacity: 2 MTPA) and construction of NCB III on EPC mode at a cost of Rs 36.52 crore (capacity: 10.22 MTPA).
The port is also in the process of executing major capacity augmentation projects like (i) capital dredging of the dock basin (-) 16.50 m and approach channel up to (-) 17.20 m depth; (ii) widening of the port entrance channel from 153 m to 230 m at an approximate cost of Rs 3,090.28 crore (capacity: 27.90 MMTPA) and upgradation of existing VOC berth 3 and 4 at an estimated cost of Rs 97.53 crore.
