Chennai aims for container hub status

Chennai Port Trust chairman K Suresh

The port of Chennai has plans to be the container hub of the east coast of India and the car export terminal of the country, a news report said.


A long-term business plan for the port was prepared by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India, and is being fine-tuned following directives from the Union shipping ministry, Mumbai's Financial Express reported.

Under this business plan, the container terminal is expected to handle five million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) by 2027 from the present level of close to one million.  Within a few years, the port also plans to create facilities to enable it to export 200,000 cars per year.

Chairman of the Chennai Port Trust, K Suresh, has indicated that iron ore and coal trading will be moved over to Ennore Port, with the available space being converted to new container terminals.

The privately managed Chennai container terminal handled 885,000 TEUs during 2006-07, an increase of 20.5% from the year before.  A second container terminal is under construction by PSA-Sical, expected to be operational by October 2008.

"By the time the second terminal reaches one million TEUs by 2012-13, the port will have its third container terminal.  A new terminal will be ready every five years up to 2027 to touch five million TEUs," Suresh said.

He added that discussions are underway for having a direct shipping service from Chennai port to Europe.  There was also a proposal for South African vessels to call at Chennai.  Already Maersk Line has a weekly service to the US east coast from Chennai.