MPT plans world-class passenger terminal

| 02 April 2002 23:23 IST

Mormugao Port Trust, the 116-year old port situated at a natural harbour on Goan coast, now plans to diversify its ore-dominated activity also to promote tourism, by constructing a world-class passenger terminal.

Announcing at an annual press conference, MPT chairman P K Mohanty said the proposal worth Rs 100 crore is being included in the tenth five-year plan and may come true shortly if the port expansion takes shape as per the plan.

The MPT has made the tourism-related activity the part of the development of Vasco Bay. The proposal worth Rs 312 crore on BOT basis includes two general cargo berths and one container berth, in addition to the fishing jetty and berths for the Navy, Coast Guard and Fisheries Survey of India.

The passenger terminal will be equipped with all kind of facilities for the tourists, including rest rooms, telephony, sanitation etc, said Mohanty. He has also sent a proposal to the central tourism ministry for funding the proposal.

"We will grow together", says the MPT chairman, stating that Goa is one of the five ports identified to facilitate tourism, along with Mumbai, Mangalore and Cochin along the west coast. The leisure cruise would probably visit all these places.

The Mormugao harbour receives passenger vessels even otherwise, but not with all the necessary infrastructure made available for the tourists. Unlike 34 vessels anchored in the port last year, this year however could see only 25 passenger vessels visiting the state, mostly from the European countries.

Though the MPT has only four functioning berths including one exclusively used for the oil and one for the iron ore, Mohanty expects the cargo traffic to increase from the present 22 MT to 39 MT within a decade. Besides Vasco Bay with three berths, the outer harbour project is also thus underway.

In spite of world recession, Mohanty claims the MPT's cargo handling increased by 17 per cent, from 19.63 MT last year to 21.81 MT. The major chunk of it was obviously 17.97 MT of iron ore, which contains 78 per cent of the total cargo handling at the MPT.

China appears to have come for the rescue, by increasing its imports by 41 per cent though its regular importer - Japan - contributed only four per cent more - from 8.65 MT to 9.2 MT. Mohanty appears confident that the China contract would continue even the next year.

Though China's imports of iron ore from MPT is hardly four per cent of the total 70 MT it imports from all over the world, Mohanty claims that his efficiency in the cargo handling could attract China, rather than going to countries like Brazil or Australia.

The Mormugao port witnessed negative trend this year from several countries like Pakistan, Turkey, Italy, UAE, Bahrain and Taiwan. But, besides South Korea and Romania, little more imports by Belgium also helped the MPT to show a rising trend while also maintaining a surplus of almost Rs six crore, in spite of spending almost Rs 35 crore on the VRS.

Drop a comment