Kattupalli port to begin operations

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A shipyard-cum-captive minor port in Kattupalli that shares a common boundary with Ennore port, 32-km North of Chennai, is all set to begin operations, but the trade members are not pleased.

Promoted by Larsen and Toubro along with Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (Tidco), the captive port has been notified under section-7 by the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) last week.

The section only allows unloading goods in containers for transshipment and loading of goods transshipped in containers for export.

The industry sources said that the port would commence operations as soon as the local customs department issues another notification that will enable authorities to earmark land on the premises for import and export cargo.

But local agents are unhappy as customs clearance cannot be done at the Katupalli port, which was in fact touted by the export-import trade as an alternative to the Chennai port that is facing congestion for the past two years.

“We expected the Kattupalli port to ease congestion along the Ennore, Manali and Tiruvottriyur Roads.

But now with the port being notified only as a transshipment point, we need to shift the Chennai-based cargo to the inland container depot (ICD) that is located at Tiruvottriyur thereby adding to the congestion on the main roads,” said Chennai Customs House Clearance Agents Association president A.V. Vijayakumar.

“There are 29 container freight stations in Chennai and all of them need to go to the two ICDs, one at Tiruvottriyur and the other at Sriperumbudur.

The clogging inside the two terminals at the Chennai port might get reduced, but road congestion will continue,” he added.

While the captive port will have capacity to handle 1.2 million 20-foot equivalent units of containers, the shipbuilding yard has already begun construction of 12 small ships for the Indian Coast Guard.