Kerala to charter cargo from Goa
PTI, KOCHI | 04 May 2013 00:11 IST
Kerala will charter a 154 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) vessel from Waterways Shipyard, Goa, by the month-end for movement of container cargo between International Container Transhipment Terminal (ICTT) here and Kollam.
The government has placed orders for the vessel which will have inbuilt crane facilities and is expected to be delivered by the month-end, K R Vinothu, team leader of Coastal Shipping Committee and port officer of Alappuzha, told reporters here.
The charter fee is Rs 39 lakh a month. The vessel, which is not new, is expected to make a minimum of eight trips a month.
Discussions have already been held with IRE, Kerala Minerals and Metals Ltd and Cashew Corporation for handling their cargo. Based on the success of this initiative, the government is planning to connect ICTT with Beypore within a year, he said.
Spices, tiles, construction materials, textiles, plywood are among the cargo likely to be moved from Beypore. The transportation cost is expected to be reduced by Rs 5,000 per container.
In an effort to discuss the challenges and opportunities of coastal shipping and Inland Water Transport (IWT), a Coastal Shipping and IWT summit will be held here on May 6 in which over 170 delegates from across the country are expected to participate.
The summit, being organised by Kerala Sea and Trade, an initiative of Smartways B2B Connect Private Ltd, will bring together key stakeholders from the national maritime industry who will deliberate over the major issues in the sector, said Wilson Rajan, Director, Smartways B2B Connect Private Ltd.
Government’s road map on developing coastal shipping and inland water transport, efficiency and equity of resource allocation to compliment the relative advantage of competing infrastructure sectors to ensure sustainability will be discussed at the summit, he said.
Kerala Chief Minister Ooomen Chandy will inaugurate the summit which would be addressed by Director General of Shipping Gautam Chatterjee and Chairman Inland Water Authority of India Viswapati Trivedi.
Promoting coastal shipping, the state government has introduced an incentive scheme in January this year for coastal cargo of Re 1/km/tonne and Re 1/passenger/km. In 2013-14, the government had allocated Rs 5 crore in the budget for development of coastal shipping.
Coastal shipping has great scope and needs to be encouraged.