August 22, 2008

Kottayam container depot gets minor port status

Kerala government has accorded minor port status to the first inland container depot, which is nearing completion at Muttam in Kottayam district on public private participation under the Indian Ports Act 1908. The project has the uniqueness being the first inland waterway port in India. The facility will be open to public in the near future for commercial shipping operations.

Declaration of Kottayam as a minor port will also regulate the movement of vessels and prevent clandestine operations as well as assist in the Government’s efforts for industrial, agricultural and tourism development of the region and development of inland waterways.

The project will be of real utility to those in the central part of the state once the union shipping ministry’s proposal to connect the Vaikkom Kottayam waterways to national waterway number 3 materializes. The objective is to promote cargo consolidation and use the potential of inland waterways. Moreover, the total logistic cost can be reduced by resorting to road as the mode of transport, to Kochi port from Kottayam.

The project is a JV promoted by Kerala Industrial Infrastructure Corporation and South Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry with Central Government assistance. This is an export promotion facility being set up with assistance from the union commerce ministry, which is to be operated through road and water ways.

The facility will have the capacity to handle 250 TEU of containers, for both export and import. This is being set up with the intention of catering to the needs of nearly 1,000 registered export or import concerns operating from the districts of Pathanamthitta, Kottayam and Idukki.