Mr. Jacob Thomas, Director, Ports, has announced that the Kerala Government is in full swing to revamp the State’s maritime sector – it has listed a number of projects for private investments, worked out an incentive scheme to boost coastal shipping and has finally decided to constitute a Maritime Board to oversee the developments in the sector.Explaining the rationale behind these initiatives, Mr. Jacob Thomas said the key objective of these initiatives is to divert cargo from the congested roads to waterways and coastal shipping.
With regard to developing new ports, he stated: “The cargo for Kerala ports need not be generated within the State. Kochi Port has been receiving cargo, even though the manufacturing base in Kerala is not producing enough volume. Transshipment is not based on local cargo. Cargo can come from other countries and also from other States. For example, we are developing a large port at Ponnani and the cargo to this port is expected to come mainly from Tirupur-Coimbatore belt.”
Concerning coastal cargo, he observed: “The Government has identified four types of cargo for coastal shipping such as construction materials, foodgrains, Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) and vehicles. These are now coming to Kerala from other States by road or rail. We want to bring them by ships.”
“Movement of cargo to Lakshwadeep also has great potential. Currently, 2 lakh tonnes of general cargo is shipped annually from Beypore Port. The volume is expected to go up with the changing lifestyle of the people in the Islands.”
“We are developing seven ports Vizhinjam, Kollam, Alappuzha, Kodungalloor, Ponnani, Beypore and Azhikal. Our target is to divert at least 20% of the cargo currently moved by road to coastal shipping by 2015 and 40% by 2020.”
“Two dedicated terminals for handling cement will be set up at Kollam and Azhikal on Public-Private-Partnership basis. Azhikal will have 1 million tonnes capacity and Kollam five lakh tonnes. Two cement companies have already approached us and the tender will be awarded shortly. It is estimated that the prices of cement will come down by INR 50 a bag if transported by coastal ships. Besides, cement, granite, tiles and other construction materials coming from Gujarat and other parts of the country to the State can also be moved by sea.”
“Kollam is also being developed as a cashew hub. The plan is to move export consignments by coastal vessels to Kochi Port. These are currently carried by trucks. We plan to bring foodgrains, sugar, pulses and other commodities by ships. At present they are moved by road or rail from Rajasthan and Punjab. It would be much cheaper to move them by sea from Gujarat,” he explained.
“Our plan is to divert at least 50% of these commodities to coastal shipping. Kodungalloor and Beypore ports are ready to handle foodgrains and the first shipment of wheat is expected to arrive this month. We have also identified Kollam and Azhikal ports for setting up LPG terminals.”
The proposal is to create an INR 300-crore fund to finance the incentive scheme, which will be operated by the State Maritime Board. This will be from the INR 930 crore allocated for the development of the sector.
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