Cochin Port to have a ship repair and maintenance facility by December

INR 750 crore project of a ship repair and maintenance facility at Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL) has already been accorded approval by the Centre and the required documents were handed over by CSL and the Cochin Port Trust in the recently concluded ‘Emerging Kerala’. The Cochin Port Trust will provide all the possible facility to CSL so that it can start its operations in December. The port trust will give about 45 acres of land on Willingdon Island; it will also give the existing workshop complex that includes buildings and machinery on a lease and it will also transfer about 230 employees of the Cochin Port Trust to CSL. The new facility will be a “Modern Ship Repair Yard of International Standard”. Like the Colombo port, the Cochin port also has the locational advantage of 76 nautical miles deviation from the main East-West shipping route. Since a very large number of ships navigate though this route, there is a good scope for ship repair business. Availability of the bunkering facilities at the port is another strong point of favour for the port. The prospects for revenue appear very bright; with projects for developing a few terminals such as LNG terminal, LPG terminal, cement handling terminal and a bulk cargo terminal, the number of ships that might call at Cochin port will greatly increase. Moreover, the International Container Transshipment Terminal is also nearby. The recent Cabotage law relaxation also may be recalled here with a review after three years. All these go to promise that the new facility will have an effective performance.

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