Vallarpadam project contract to be awarded by March

Preliminary designs for transshipment container terminal ready

The contract for the construction of Vallarpadam Transhipment Container Terminal (VTCT) will be awarded by next March and thereafter civil work will commence, according to Suresh Joseph, general manager, India Gateway Terminals Pvt Limited (IGTL), the Indian arm of Dubai Port World (DPW).

"We have already finalised the preliminary designs of the terminal and we will place it before the port trust for approval this month itself. After the approval, detailed designs will be prepared along with the notification for tenders. We hope that the entire process will be completed within three months and work will commence in the first half of next year," he said.

Talking to Business Standard, he said that geo-technical and marine studies for the proposed project had already been completed and the work would begin as per schedule so that the terminal would be operational by April 2009.

Commenting on the reports on the security clearance issue, he said that the project had already been cleared by various government agencies.

The Centre has accorded clearance to the contract between the port trust and DPW.

As per the agreement, IGTL is presently operating the Rajiv Gandhi Container Terminal (RGCT). He also said that discussion were on various levels to commence direct mainline vessel services to Europe and east coast of USA from Kochi.

The new service will begin by January next that will give a quantum leap in the container vessel traffic to Kochi. Hyper Galex, a consortium of three shipping liners, Emerald Shipping, T S Line and Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) have already identified Kochi as one of the major ports in their west and east bound voyages connecting China and the Middle East.

Suresh said that more mainline shipping companies had shown keen interest in calling at Kochi port due to its locational advantages between Europe and South East Asia.