BL reported that Visakha Container Terminal Private Ltd signed an agreement with Kone Cranes, the crane manufacturer with its headquarters in Finland, for four rubber tyred gantry cranes and two rail mounted quay cranes also known as ship to shore cranes.

The agreement was signed by Captain Sriram Ravichander COO of the Visakha and Mr Juha Aatola GM and Mr Sami Karpola country manager for Indian operations of Kone.

The number of cranes in the container terminal would rise to four ship to shore cranes and six RTGCs after the acquisition. The container terminal would be able to handle post Panamax vessels with no difficulty and the capacity of the terminal would go up from the present 300,000 TEUs to 500,000 TEUs.

Captain Ravichander said the cranes would cost the company INR 120 crore and they would be supplied in 16 months.

He spoke at length about the progress made by the Visakha terminal in the past seven years since its inception in 2003 and how it had crossed the 100,000 TEUs mark recently, in spite of the recession during the past two years. He expressed the hope that the best cranes in the world would be supplied by Kone to the terminal.

(Sourced from BL)