Visakhapatnam Port Trust Chairman M.T. Krishna Babu on Tuesday said they are inspired by China’s accomplishments in shipping, and are emulating its success story in handling large volumes of international trade.

Mr. Krishna Babu said VPT is gearing up to face the challenges of the future and is aiming to achieve faster evacuation of cargo.

“We are addressing connectivity issues and are removing bottlenecks identified by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). With less turnaround time, and a reduction in the waiting period of cargo meant for dispatch to various destinations, we can improve our efficiency paramteters,” Mr. Krishna Babu said at a roadshow organised here ahead of the Maritime Conclave that will be held in Bhubaneswar on February 14 and 15.

The Vedanta coal berth and Essar iron berths built at VPT under a Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) basis could each handle 30 million tonnes of cargo if problems regarding evacuation and connectivity are sorted out, the VPT Chairman said.

China is way ahead

Mr. Krishna Babu recalled his interaction with senior officials of the Port of Tianjin in China, and how the latter were surprised to know that VPT, with 24 berths under operation and three under modernisation, were able to handle only 63.5 million tonnes. The Port of Tianjin is ranked among the top 10 ports with an annual throughput of 630 million tonnes.

“In India, all major ports put together handled 679 million tonnes last year. The Port of Shanghai in China alone handles 700 million tonnes,” Mr. Krishna Babu said, praising Union Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari for his work in improving the performance of major ports vis-à-vis non-major ports during the past four years.

He said under the Sagarmala Project, port modernisation had been taken up drastically, and evacuation movement by road and rail and the development of coastal economic zone and industrial corridors had been focused upon.