Mangalore, Apr 4: New Mangalore Port has handled a record traffic of 37.04 million tonnes of cargo in the fiscal year 2013-13 as against 32.94 million tonnes handled in the previous fiscal year, recording a growth of 12.43 percent, said chairman of New Mangalore Port Trust (NMPT) P Tamilvanan, here on Thursday.
The port handled the highest import traffic of 27.32 million tonnes (mt) in 2012-13 surpassing the earlier record 23.68 mt in the previous fiscal year, showing an increase of 15.36 percent. The export traffic showed an increase of 4.94 per cent from 9.26 mt in the previous year to 9.71 mt in 2012-13.
It has also handled a record quantity of 6.91 mt of coal surpassing the earlier record of 4.02 mt in 2011-12. The railway traffic had considerably increased with a growth of 55 per cent from 3.89 mt to 6.03 mt in 2012-13.
Container traffic at the port had seen a rise of 7.55% by handling a record number of 48,409 TEUs as against 45,009 TEUs during the previous year. Achievements during 2012-13 included handling of 14 gearless container vessels, large bulk cargo vessel with a parcel size of over 1 lakh metric tonnes, and handling of 7,899 TEUs of raw cashews at the port, which was possible because of mainline vessels coming from East and West Africa.
Mr Tamilvanan said that the traffic in iron ore handling ports in the country such as Vizag, Chennai and Marmugao (Goa) had come down, but the traffic in iron ore at New Mangalore Port had increased to 37 mt, as against the Ministry's target of 36 mt for the year 2012-13.
NMPT is currently constructing a new POL berth for tankers (Berth 13) at a cost of Rs 79.17 crore, which is expected to be completed shortly. Work on the construction of new multipurpose berth (Berth 18) for handling general cargo and containers at a cost of Rs 137 crore, which has been approved by the Ministry, will begin shortly, he said.
Talking about the financial aspect, he said that for the eighth consecutive year, the port had earned a net surplus of Rs 100 crore.
He also announced the proposal for the commencement of a mainline vessel carrying cargo from NMP to Karachi in the coming days.
The export of wheat has commenced from NMPT, he added.
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