V O Chidambaranar Port, the vibrant seaport in Southern part of India has handled a cargo volume of 29.70 million tonnes including 5.62 Lakh TEUs of containers, during this financial year 2024-25 up to 19th December 2024, marking an overall growth of 1.87% and 6.74% respectively. With the ever-increasing trend in cargo handling, the Port’s has initiated several strategic capacity augmentation and cargo evacuation initiatives to increase cargo throughput, enhance handling efficiency and expand its market share in the region.
To give a fillip to the container trade, the Port’s 3rd Container Terminal ‘Tuticorin International Container Terminal’, operated by JM Baxi Group, with a draft of 14.20 metres and LOA of 370 metres, has been recently inaugurated by Sarbananda Sonowal, Hon’ble Union Minister for Ports, Shipping and Waterways, on 16 th September,2024. The terminal has commenced its operations and shall handle 6 Lakh TUEs per Annum.
To augment the capacity of the bulk cargo handling at the Port, the North cargo berth-III (NCB-3) with Length overall (LOA) of 306 metres will be dredged by the Port by February 2025, to handle vessels upto 14.20 metres draft. The dredging will also be done parallelly in the entrance channel, approach channel and turning circle area of the Port. The interim operations of the terminal on completion of dredging shall commence using 2 Harbour Mobile Cranes with capacity of 100 – 120 tonnes, by January 2025 end. The NCB-3 will be mechanized by JSW Infrastructure Ltd., by December, 2026 with shore unloaders, capable of discharging 7 million tonnes per annum.
In order to accommodate ships of Beam of 49 metres and LOA of 366 (Existing Beam 48 metres , LOA 310 metres), widening of the Port’s entrance channel from 152.40 Metres to 230 Metres has also been taken up by the Port.
To accommodate additional bulk and break-bulk cargo ships, the Port has initiated proposal for construction of Berth No.10 with LOA of 440 metres, under EPC mode at an approximate cost of Rs. 80 Crores. The berth already has a draft of 10.70 metres and would be dredged to 14.50 metres in near future.
Additionally, to utilize the idle capacity of Coal Jetty-1, operated by Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation Limited (TANGEDCO) , installation of link conveyor is in progress, for lighterage of coal vessels with arrival draft of 13 metres.
To increase the throughput of North Caro Berth-2, an additional harbour mobile crane with a capacity of 100 Tonnes to enhance the capacity to handle 25,000 tonnes a day shall be commissioned by 2 nd week of January 2025. Additional berth area of around 5000 Sq. metres each in NCB-2 and NCB-3 shall be made available by backfilling with dredged materials and it will be completed by this year end.
To handle smaller vessels of around 120 meters of LOA and parallel body length 52 metres to 55 metres in the Port’s oil jetty, 2 mooring dolphins with necessary infrastructure will be constructed by the mid of the year 2025.
To handle windmill blades and accessories for the proposed Offshore wind energy hub in the coastline of Tamil Nadu, the Port has proposed to construct an exclusive terminal for handling Windmill blades and accessories with Length overall of 470 m and backup area of 30 Hectares.
As a part of a mission to position VOC Port as the Green Hydrogen /Ammonia hub of India, the Port has allocated 501 acres of land to 4 firms for Green Hydrogen / Ammonia manufacturing & storage facilities at a total investment worth ₹41,860 crores. A pilot demonstration project for establishing a Green Hydrogen production, storage, and power generation using fuel cells is currently in progress and is expected to be completed by January 2025. In parallel, the Port is set to execute Green Hydrogen Pilot Bunkering Project, which will demonstrate bunkering and refuelling facilities for green hydrogen and its derivatives. Port is also in the process of establishing necessary berthing and cargo handling infrastructure to handle Green Hydrogen / Ammonia to a tune of around 2 million tonnes / annum.
Susanta Kumar Purohit, IRSEE, Chairperson, VOC Port Authority, in his message stated that ‘with the advantages of being the all-weather port, strategic location close to East West International Sea route, lowest operating ratio of 28.18 %, lowest turnaround time of container ships, well established logistics support systems, seamless road and rail connectivity, upcoming industries, and capacity augmentation initiatives, VOC Port has immense potential to become the gateway Port of South India.
