The Visakhapatnam Container Terminal Private Limited (VCTPL) has 20% of the share in the entire country and its capacity would go up more than 30% with the completion of works.
It is recalled that the VCTPL had taken up expansion works with an estimated cost of Rs. 633 crores but the cost has increased to Rs. 954 crores. The work started in the year 2019, but pandemic conditions delayed the work. Now, the expansion works are completed, and the terminal is ready to enhance its cargo handling capacity.
These expansion works gave space to handle two huge containerships and also a small ship at a time. The actual berth length is 450 meters and it has become 850 meters. The expansion has given scope to handle the 20,000 TEU containers. Besides, the terminal management has been arranging super post-panama cranes to handle huge containers easily.
The capacity of the VCTPL is 0.7 million (7 lakhs) Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit (TEU) and after the completion of the expansion works its capacity has increased to more than 1.2 million TEUs. At present, the container terminal is handling five lakh TEUs. The terminal handled 5,11,794 containers in the financial year 2021-22. Its handling capacity would increase from 10% to 15% in the next coming three years, the VCTPL sources said.
“Presently, seven to ten container ships cargo handling in a week has been going on in the terminal. It would go up to 17 containerships per week in the coming days. The Visakhapatnam container terminal has a share of 20% now and it would go up to 30%,” sources said.
The Visakhapatnam Port Authority chairman K Rama Mohana Rao said that the expansion of the container terminal would boost up logistics infrastructure development, employment generation, ship repairs, human resources, warehousing hubs, rail connectivity, and others would also develop.
The container terminal sources said that cargo from Kolkata port, and Yangon port have been going to Colombo, Singapore. The expansion of the terminal had taken up to attract the exporters by providing the required facilities and amenities. They said that many cargo ships from Europe and America have been going to the Western Coast of the country rather than the Eastern Coast due to a lack of facilities.
