FOLLOWING the worldwide trend of placing waterfront cargo operations well away from highly congested population centres, Krishnapatnam Port Container Terminal's (KPCT) has done just that.
On the most indented point along the east coast of India, the port is 200 kilometres north of Chennai (pop 4.6 million) and 650 kilometres south of rival Port of Visakhapatnam, also known as Vizag, with its 1.7 million people.
But despite the competition from north and south, the private KPCT port enjoyed 57 per cent year-on-year container growth to 90,507 TEU.
KPTC representative in China (Ben Line Agencies as agent), Bacchus Wan credits KPCT growth to the strength and vitality of its immediate hinterland, which has diverted its outflow and inflow from rival ports.
"They diverted their business to KPCT and experienced significant savings in costs due to operational efficiencies and reduced distance to the port," said Mr Wan.
The port has two direct calls from Maersk and Shipping Corporation of India. The third mainline vessel to Middle East is expected to commence in May 2015.
"KPCT has received very good encouragement due to high speed operations and quick turnarounds. We have achieved a record vessel productivity of 48.6 moves per hour per crane.
The terminal is rapidly developing with two berths with a quay length of 650 metres and an overall terminal capacity of 1.2 million TEU on 88 acres.
In Phase II, already under way, there will be seven berths, 2,000 metres of quay, a capacity 4.8 million TEU sitting on 600 acres.
Mr Wan said KPCT has excellent road and rail connectivity by way of a dedicated four-lane National Highway. "Land on the side of the road has also been acquired to facilitate widening of the road as the cargo volume grows," said Mr Wan.
"This will ensure that at no point that we get into a situation of external congestion that is impacting many other ports in India today," he said.
KPCT is easily accessible by road and by rail from the major export origin areas and import consumption points in Chennai (pop 4.6 million), Bangalore (pop 4.3 million), Hyderabad (3.6 million) and Nagpur (2.05 million).
The company has created the Krishnapatnam Rail Company Limited (KRCL) to lay track to major cargo collecting points. Concur is already running trains between KPCT and an inland container depot at Hyderabad and plans to connect from KPCT to a Bangalore and Nagpur box depots.
"We have a large land area of 6,500 acres port facility and 12,000 acres SEZ [special economic zone] facility making us the largest port and SEZ complex in India. The vast land area coupled with the deepest draft in India (18.5 metres) make us ideally suited to handle large scale of transshipment operations on the east coast of India," Mr Wan said.
"KPCT has a unique advantage of being situated on the east coast of India suitable for east west trade lanes and has necessary infrastructure in terms of land area and draft to handle transshipments," he said.
Being a private port, KPCT's tariff is not controlled by the federal government. "We are able to offer vessel operators flexible pricing."
KPCT is poised to develop a strong industrial base because of the industrial corridor with Bangalore is being constructed by the Japanese government funding. Further, the Vizag Chennai industrial corridor will bring industries to KPCT.
The new Andhra Pradesh Government has announced slew of tax incentives promote industry in KPCT hinterland. Also, the proposed introduction of GST from 2016 will facilitate the development of large western style distribution centres by global retail companies.
Krishnapatnam Port Infratech Limited (KPIL) has 12,000 acres of land to offer new industries at competitive land price, he said.
Blessed with natural deep water, there is 13.5 metre draft alongside, sufficient to meet current needs, but with 18.5 metres further up the quay line, KPIL is not worried about mega ships calling because it owns six dredgers and can conduct dredging activity with little notice.
WORLD SHIPPING
22 April 2015 - 21:27
Blessed with deep water, KPCT looks set to blossom on India's east coast
FOLLOWING the worldwide trend of placing waterfront cargo operations well away from highly congested population centres, Krishnapatnam Port Container Terminal's (KPCT) has done just that.
WORLD SHIPPING
22 April 2015 - 21:27
Blessed with deep water, KPCT looks set to blossom on India's east coast
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