Tuticorin Municipal council Memebers dissatisfied with the lack of proper infrastructure.

Cutting across party lines, councillors complained about the bad conditions of roads in the town, at the municipal council meeting held in Tuticorin Municipal Building on 25th January.

N. Suresh Kumar (All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam), councillor of Ward 8, said the administration `miserably failed' to respond to the repeated pleas of people and elected representatives to carry out road repairs.

He pointed out that most of the road accidents had occurred owing to poor condition of roads.

Drinking water crisis and stray dog menace were the other problems highlighted by the councillors of various political parties.

Municipal Commissioner K. Kanagaraj said that the stray dogs could not be killed by administering euthanasia owing to legal problems. "We are exploring the possibility of carrying out birth control measure on the stray dog population, with the help of officials from the Department of Animal Husbandry."

The council passed a resolution to change the old fittings on 200 streetlight poles at an estimated cost of Rs. 1.75 lakh.

Besides, the house decided to upgrade eight earthen roads to cement roads, four water-bound macadam roads to metalled roads and establish storm water drains, all on a total outlay of Rs. 52.85 lakh.

Municipal Chairperson Kasturi Thangam said that a park at Boltonpuram would be renovated soon at Rs. 2.50 lakh. Of the total project cost, Rs. 1 lakh would be availed from the municipal exchequer and the rest from Town and Country Planning Department, she added.

The council decided to raise the minimum monthly water charges for domestic use from Rs. 40 to 50 with immediate effect. Similarly, rates for commercial establishments and industries were raised from Rs. 70 to 100 and Rs. 105 to 150. respectively.

Source: The Hindu

Tuticorin farmers familiarised with futures trading

The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has familiarised farmers in the Tuticorin district with the concept of futures trading, as part of a new initiative taken by it.

Forward Markets Commission Director Shivanand S Ajur and Multi Commodity Exchange Manager Training V Venkat Giridhar interacted with farmers to educate them on "price discovery, price risk management and functions of futures contract", a NABARD official said.

Addressing the farmers, Ajur said only 91 commodities currently feature in the list approved by the Government for futures trading under section 15 of the Forward Contracts (Regulation Act).

The Centre plans to set up futures market for perishable products such as fish, egg and fruits, he said.

A live commodities trading session was also shown to the farmers through satellite link, officials said.

Source : The Hindu

M. S. Ocean Odyssey, a luxury cruise liner visits Tuticorin

M. S. Ocean Odyssey, a luxury cruise liner , a part of the new cruise service introduced by Indian Ocean Cruises Limited, New Delhi, connecting Goa, the Lakshwadeep Islands, Mangalore, Kochi and Colombo, on its maiden voyage, arrived at the Tuticorin port on 23rd January 2006.

M. S. Ocean Odyssey is a 105.6-metre-long vessel boasts of standard and deluxe cabins, a swimming pool, two Jacuzzis, a dining room, a dance floor, a spa and a beauty saloon, a bar, a library with 200 books and a fitness centre which makes it a four-star vessel carried 54 tourists, both foreign and domestic, as against its capacity of 290 passengers, and a crew of 152.

The vessel called on the trading ports of Kochi and Mangalore, the untouched islands of Tinnakara and Suheli in Lakshwadeep and Sri Lanka, before reaching Tuticorin. To the accompaniment of nagaswaram, the tourists arrived at the port. District Tourism Officer T. Chellappa and Tuticorin Port Trust Public Relations Officer Arunachalam received them. Seven tourists — four Britons, one Irishman, one Estonian and a Columbian — embarked on a sightseeing trip to the heritage sites in Tirunelveli district.

LTTE supporter arrested near Tuticorin

An activist of Sri Lanka's Tamils National Movement (TNM) was arrested for allegedly attempting to smuggle explosive materials near Tuticorin by the Intelligence Department .

The person named Prabhakaran, also an ardent supporter of the LTTE, and two others were being questioned at an undisclosed place in Tuticorin City.

The sources said Prabhakaran was making arrangements to send a large quantity of steel balls, used as "raw material for mines and grenades", when he was intercepted by intelligence officials.

Tuticorin port open to students

Starting 12th January, the Tuticorin port was thrown open to students for six consecutive days to commemorate the commencement of 125th year of commercial operations at Chennai harbour.

On the inaugural day, 439 students and faculty members from two arts and science colleges, two polytechnics, and four schools from Tirunelveli, Madurai, Tuticorin and Virudhunagar districts visited the port. The students were taken out to the V.O.C. Wharf, Berth-8 and signal station — all situated inside the `green gate' of the port.

The visitors were explained the cargo handling techniques. Earlier, the Public Relations Officer of Tuticorin Port Trust, T. Arunachalam, through a promotional video footage, briefed the students on the achievements of the port since it became the tenth major port in the country on July 11, 1974.

The queries of students on the facilities available at the port were answered by the officials using a miniature representation of the port facilities on display at the administrative block.

The port officials explained the role of different types of berths and the importance of gadgets such as rubber-tyre gantry cranes, container quay cranes and towing tugs.

The students were also explained the features of the Sethusamudram Ship Channel Project undertaken by the Centre to facilitate ships to have a direct passage through Indian territorial waters instead of circumventing Sri Lanka.

Once the channel becomes fully functional, sailing time and distance would be saved tremendously, benefiting the export-import trade, the port officials told the visiting students.

Source: The Hindu

Filing of nominations begins in Tuticorin for By-Polls

Filing of nominations for by-elections to various local bodies commenced in the district on 12 January. Only one nomination for the post of president of Kulasekarapattinam village panchayat was received on the first day.

The by-elections were scheduled for the posts of presidents of Paraikootam village panchayat (Ottapidaram block), Sivagnanapuram (Vilathikulam block), Kulasekarapattinam (Udangudi block) and Meerankulam (Alwarthirunagari block).

Besides, by-elections will be conducted to elect 24 village panchayat ward members and one Town panchayat ward member.

The last date of filing nominations is January 27 and scrutiny of nominations will be held on January 29. The last date for withdrawal of nominations is January 31. The polls are scheduled for February 8 and counting of votesthe following day.

1,58,850 children to be covered in Tuticorin in pulse polio programme

The Collector, R. Palaniyandi, exhorted parents to bring their children in the age group of zero to five years to booths for giving oral polio vaccine on January 7.

The drops would be administered to 1,58,850 children in the district through 1,062 booths set up in Tuticorin and Kovilpatti health unit districts.

The population in transit would be covered through the `additional booths' established at major bus stands and railway stations and at places of tourism importance such as Tiruchendur, Kazhugamalai and Panchalankurichi.

A total of 5,000 volunteers comprising doctors from the 47 Primary Health Centres and the Tuticorin Medical College and Hospital, officials from different departments, anganwadi staff, village health nurses and sector health nurses would be deployed to administer the drops.

Aliyar Liaquat Ali, Deputy Director of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, said no polio case was reported in the district since the detection of two cases (one at Thalamuthu Nagar and another at Threspuram) during 1998. "Even there was no incidence of poliomyelitis in the State during 2005 and 2006, after the last case was reported at M.G.R. Nagar in Tirunelveli in 2004."

Dr. Ali said a total of 1,814 cases were reported across the world during 2006 of which 624 cases were from our nation. Of the 624 cases, 509 cases were registered in Uttar Pradesh followed by 52 in Bihar, 18 in Haryana, 13 in Uttaranchal, five in Maharashtra, eight in Punjab, six in Delhi, three each in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, two in Assam and one each in Chandigarh, Himachal Pradsh, Jharkand, West Bengal and Jammu and Kashmir," he added.

Source: Hindu

Cultivated area exceeds target set for Tuticorin

Collector R. Palaniyandi has said that the area covered under millets and pulses cultivation in the district had exceeded the targets set for the current financial year by December itself.

Chairing a meeting of Agriculture Production Committee (APC) here on Thursday, he said that a total of 48,935 hectares was brought under millet cultivation between April 1 and December 31 against the target of 47,580 ha envisaged, and pulses were raised on 54,934 ha against 25,000 ha.

Of the 48,935 ha brought under millets category, `cholam' was raised on 6,915 ha, `cumbu' on 16,027 ha, maize on 11,043 ha, ragi on 161 ha, `fodder-cholam' on 14,059 ha and other millets on 720 ha.

On other crops, he said that 20,459 ha was brought under paddy against the target of 23,000 ha, and 5,737 ha under cotton against the target of 12,000 ha.

Similarly, 6,120 ha was brought under oilseeds category against the target of 7,000 ha. Of this, 2,067 ha was brought under groundnuts, 2,864 ha under gingelly, 1,090 ha under sunflower and 99 ha under castor.

To increase the yield, the district administration distributed certified seeds of paddy (202.58 tonnes), millets (24.94 tonnes), pulses (56.48 tonnes), cotton (12.42 tonnes) and oilseeds (30.65 tonnes), at subsidised rates during the first nine months of the current fiscal.

On the performance of allied departments, he said that a total of 1,525 ha was brought under the Command Area Development Scheme, implemented by the Department of Agricultural Engineering, at the end of third quarter, to ensure improved agricultural activities with efficient water management.

S. Subramanian, Joint-Director of Agriculture, Sundaram Pillai, Assistant Director of Horticulture, Gandhirajan, Personal Assistant ( Agriculture) to the Collector, and Ramasamy, Joint Registrar of Co-operative Societies, were present.

Later, the Collector looked into the complaints of farmers at a grievance day meeting at the Collectorate.

Source: The Hindu

Tuticorin BSNL announces a slew of schemes

  The Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited's Tuticorin Telecom District has arranged for loans to purchase Subscribers Trunk Dialling billing machine through Tamilnad Mercantile Bank for those who want to convert the BSNL Village Public Telephone (VPT), providing only local call, into STD PT.

Speaking to reporters here on Thursday, the General Manager, BSNL, Tuticorin Telecom District, N.R. Natarajan, said that VPT providers who opt for conversion could contact the BSNL local offices in this regard.

The rate of interest for the loan would be 12.50 per cent.

During Christmas festival, broadband service was given to customers of Nazareth and the second Base Trans-receiver Station was installed there. In the New Year, two more new BTS were installed at Kamanaickanpatti and Tiruchendur.

BSNL now offers following benefits in the Broadband service:

Free download limit for Home plans 1 Giga Bytes, 2.5 GB, 5 GB, 10 GB and 20 GB for Home 250, Home 500, Home 1,000, Home 1,800 and Home 3,300 plans respectively. Usage beyond free downloads for Home plans will cost 90 paise per Mb, 80 paise, 80 paise, 70 paise and 70 paise per Mb for Home 250, Home 500, Home 1000, Home 1800 and Home 3300 plans respectively, Mr. Natarajan said.

Free download limit for Business Plans 1 GB, 4 GB, 8 GB, 20 GB, 35 GB and 75 GB would be allowed for Business 250, Business 700, Business 1200, Business 3000, Business 5000 and Business 9000 plans respectively.

Usage beyond free downloads for business plans would cost 90 paise, 80 paise, 80 paise, 50 paise, 50 paise and 50 paise per Mb for Business 250, Business 700, Business 1200, Business 3000, Business 5000 and

Business 9000 plans respectively.

Bandwidth has now been increased up to 2 Mbps for all plans. Modem rates have been reduced to Rs.1,200 and Rs.1,800 and modem rental rates are cut from Rs. 100 to Rs. 60

and from Rs. 125 to Rs. 90. Broadband service at Tuticorin, Nazareth and Kayalpattinam is now available on-demand, and at the end of this month this service would be available throughout Tuticorin district, he said.

BSNL has now introduced fixed line prepaid (FLPP) scheme for landline and this scheme would be launched initially for STD PCO franchisees.

FLPP scheme cards are available in different denominations i.e., Rs. 337, Rs. 500, Rs. 1,000, Rs. 3,000, Rs. 3,500, Rs. 5,000, Rs. 9,000 and Rs. 10,000.

BSNL offers full talk time and more for the following recharge coupons. The offer ends on Jan 18. A full talk value would be available for all those who recharge for Rs. 300.

Those who recharge for Rs. 2,000 or Rs. 3,000 will get Rs. 2,500 and Rs. 3,750 talk value — 25 per cent additional talktime respectively.

Those who recharge for Rs. 5,000 will get 50 per cent additional talktime.

For the top-up card of Rs. 500, an additional 20 per cent talktime, i.e. total talk value of Rs. 600 would be given.

In Tuticorin district all `One India' customers (i.e. Rs.180 monthly fixed charges) are provided STD without any additional deposit.

Those who want to bar or cancel the STD facility can contact Commercial Officer, Office of the General Manager, BSNL, Tuticorin, Mr. Natarajan said.

Tuticorin Medical College gets Perment Accrediation

The Tuticorin Medical College was awarded the permenant Accrediation by the Indian Medical
 Board. This has made the certificates of the students who passed out from the college last year.  

The Tuticorin Medical College was refused to be provided an Accrediation due to the lack of Medical Infrastructures in the college. Due to the timely intervention of the Chief Minister and Health Minister the necessary steps for developing the infrastructure for the college was undertaken. And now after the IMB inspection the Tuticorin Medical College was awarded the permenant Accrediation by the Indian Medical Board.

Hello FM to be launched in Tuticorin by

The Radio City FM Groups, Hello FM was launched in Coimbatore recently, the group is going to launch its next FM Station in Tuticorin in the month of March 2007.

Source: AgencyFAQs

Madhucon SPV achieves financial closure

The special purpose vehicle (SPV) set up by Madhucon Projects for undertaking the 129-km stretch of the National Highway between Madurai and Tuticorin achieved financial closure.

According to a press release, a consortium led by Canara Bank syndicated the debt for the project. The BOT (build-operate-transfer) project is being taken up at a cost of Rs 920 crore with a concession period of 20 years. "It is the longest stretch awarded by National Highway Authority of India".

The scope of the project includes design, engineering, finance, construction, operation and maintenance.

Proposals for the electification of Tuticorin - Villipuram Railway line

The Southern Railway has sent various proposals for electrification of the Mega Railway line between Villupuram and Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu. With the railways introducing more than 10 trains, as announced in the last budget, Southern Railway has sent a mega proposal of Rs 2,500 crore for electrification of Villupuram-Tuticorin to the Railway Board, Thomas Varghese, General Manager, Southern Railway, told reporters.

Lets hope that the Doubling of the Vilipuram - Tuticorin railway line also happens soon.

Vedanta Q3 earnings up by 174 percent

The parent organisation of Sterlite Copper, Vedanta Resources PLC, the FTSE 100-listed copper and zinc miner, has attained an earnings surge of 174 % in the third quarter, buoyed by strong metal prices and production.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation in the three months to December rose to 724 mln usd from 264.6 mln previously, ahead of the consensus forecast of 698.4 mln usd.

Revenue grew 81 pct to 1.76 bln usd, against a consensus figure of 1.68 bln usd.

Vedanta said production across all metals in India was 'significantly' higher in the quarter, mainly because of the contribution from newly-commissioned projects.

Production at the new 245,000-tonne per annum Korba II smelter has fully stabilised and reached its full capacity after the temporary disruption in May due to the tripping of the power plant.

Copper cathode production in India and Australia reached a record 86,000 tonnes due to the de-bottlenecking initiatives at the Tuticorin smelter, which has increased capacity to 400,000 tpa.

Source: Forbes

SPIC wins `Award of Honour'

The Southern Petrochemical Industries Corporation Limited (SPIC), Tuticorin, has bagged the `Award of Honour' instituted by the National Safety Council-Tamil Nadu chapter for 2006.

R. Muthumanoharan, Vice-President (Fertilizer Business), received the award on behalf of his company from K. Balachandran, Director (Operations), Chennai Petroleum Corporation Limited, Chennai, at a function held in Chennai recently.

K.A. Mohammed Aziz, Chief Inspector of Factories and Chairman of National Safety Council-Tamil Nadu chapter, was present.

The SPIC, Tuticorin, had won the same award earlier in 1999 and 2001.

Luxury liner visiting Tuticorin, launches cruise off Goa.

Indian Ocean Cruises, the Indian arm of London-based Foresight Group, along with its Indian representative STIC Travel Group, Saturday launched its cruise off the Goa port for a 14-night round trip.

The cruise, Ocean Odyssey, will travel from Goa touching major trading ports like Mangalore, Kochi, Tuticorin and the islands of Suheli, Thinnakkara and Cheriyam in Lakshadweep and Colombo tracing the ancient spice route.

'The launch is an initiative to provide the Indian and international travellers with a unique experience of cruising along the ancient routes of the Malabar Coast and experiencing the beauty of the pristine atolls of Lakshadweep Islands,' STIC Travel Group chairman Subhash Goyal said in a statement.

The luxury liner will also be offered in the 3-night, 5-night, 6-night, 8-night and 14-night cruise segments for the same route.

Source : NERVE of India

Tuticorin Port sets a new record

Tuticorin Port is glad to inform that the Port created a new record in cargo handling on 5.1.2007 by unloading 19,785 Metric Tonnes of Copper Concentrate in bulk at VOC Berth No.IV from the vessel mv."TURICUM" in a single day. The previous record discharge of Copper Concentrate was 19,012 Metric Tonnes on 14.07.2005 from the vessel mv."UBC TAPICO". The new record was created by complementing the discharge by using Port TRF Grab Cranes.

The Steamer Agent of the vessel is M/s.Pearl Shipping Agency, Tuticorin and the Stevedore are M/s.Villavarayar & Son, Tuticorin. The cargo is meant for M/s.Sterlite Industries India Ltd., Tuticorin.

Source: Tuticorin Port Trust

Permission to Visit Tuticorin Port by Student Community of Southern region during Celebration of 125th year Commercial Operation by Chennai Port Trus

As a part of celebration of 125th year commercial operation of Chennai Port from 19th to 24th Jan.2007, Tuticorin Port will allow the students community from the southern districts of Tuticorin, Tirunelveli, Kanyakumari, Madurai, Ramanathapuram and Sivagangai districts to visit the Port from 19th to 24th Jan.2007 free of charges. The requision for visiting the Port containing the name of the Institution, Students Age, Sex and Class should be sent in triplicate to the Public Relations Officer, Tuticorin Port and permission may be obtained in advance.

One batch consisting of 50 students and 2 teachers each from each Institution will be permitted to visit the port as Port's Guests from 19th to 24th Jan.2007. The visiting students will assemble either at Port School or Tharuvai Grounds at Tutcorin Town around 08:00 AM. They will be provide with breakfast, if option is exercised for the same, and taken to the Port Information Centre in their buses in a convoy. One senior officer of the port will brief them about the port at the Information Centre before they are taken to the Port, accompanied by an senior officer of the Port. After the site visit, lunch, at the option of the Institution will be provided to the students at the Port Guest House.

Interested Institution may apply to the Public Relations Officer Tuticorin Port Trust on or before 06.01.2007 funishing the details. The Port reserves the right to selection of School, Polytechnic and College from among the applicant Institution.

Source : Tuticorin Port Trust

111 bags of rice seized from house in Tuticorin

The police seized 111 bags of ration rice from a house at Sameer Vyas Nagar under Thalamuthu Nagar police station limits.

Police said the rice bags, weighing about 5 tonnes, were confiscated from the backyard of the house of Sudalaimani (42) when the law-enforcers raided the residence on a tip-off.

Sudalaimani was arrested.

Investigations revealed that Sudalaimani had stolen the rice from the ration shops at Mappliyyaiyoorani, T. Saveriyarpuram, Siluvaiptti, Ayyarvilai and Lourdammalpuram.

Centre urged to increase draught at Tuticorin port

The Tuticorin port handling agents' association, the Tuticorin custom house agents' association and the Tuticorin ship agents' association has urged the Centre to increase the draught available at the berths in Tuticorin port to facilitate the handling of bigger vessels.

In a joint memorandum submitted to the Union Ministry of Shipping recently, the associations demanded that the draught be increased from the present 10.7 metre to 12.8 metre at the earliest. Any further delay would leave the port lagging behind other `players' in the sector.

The Centre must expedite the completion of outer harbour development works to attract more number of deep draught vessels and mother vessels to the port. It should be ensured that the draught was not less than 14 to 16 metres. It would avoid dredging at a later stage with extra mobilisation of funds.

The development of the hinterland of the port and the airport at Vagaikulam was essential for the integrated development of the port and the town.

The associations highlighted the importance of completing the four-lane works on the Tuticorin-Tirunelveli and Tuticorin-Madurai national highways sector on a war footing. "It would enhance the speed of outward and inward cargo movement at the port," they said.

Similarly, the road connecting Tuticorin with Kochi via Shencottah, Punalur and Kollam should be developed to improve the connectivity between the two major ports situated at Tuticorin and Kochi. All these developments would have a direct bearing on the economic growth of the port here.

Court orders "arrest" of foreign ship berthed at the Tuticorin Port

Exercising its admiralty jurisdiction, the Madras High Court has ordered the "arrest" of a foreign ship, flying the Maldivian flag, berthed at the Tuticorin Port.

Justice K. Chandru granted the plea made by the Pakistan-based Garibsons (Private) Limited and directed the Registry to issue a warrant for the arrest of M.V. Asian Express, formerly known as M.V. Ocean Venture.

Counsel for the petitioner-company S. Vasudevan and Abdul Quddhose submitted that the vessel was transporting a cargo of 5,500 metric tonnes of bagged rice from Karachi in Pakistan to Illychevsk in Ukraine. It sailed out of Karachi on August 29, 2006. "The vessel, instead of prosecuting her voyage from Karachi to Ukraine, remained off Jeddah, and clandestinely travelled to Colombo," they submitted, adding that it had offloaded around 4,000 tonnes of rice at Colombo.

The petitioner-company said while it acted properly and in good faith, the vessel owners had acted fraudulently and in bad faith.

Even before an arrest order obtained in a Sri Lankan court could be executed, the ship sailed out of Galle with a view to "frustrate and defeat the execution of the order and thereby exhibited complete disrespect and disregard to the orders passed by the court."

Claiming that over $ 17 lakh was payable by the ship owners, the petition said unless the plea to arrest and detain the vessel was granted it would sail out of the court's jurisdiction.

As the 30-year-old vessel had already reached the end of its commercial life and it was likely to be beached, broken and sold as scrap, the court should order that the vessel to be condemned and sold, it said.

The vessel, together with her hull, tackle, engines, machinery, apparel, equipment, stores, articles, things and other paraphernalia, should be arrested and detained by a warrant of arrest, it said.

TMB acquires high technology to provide reliable service.

Riverbed Technology Inc. announced that the Tamilnad Mercantile Bank Ltd.(TMB), India, has deployed Riverbed's Steelhead wide-area data services (WDS) appliances in its Chennai data center and in its Bangalore disaster recovery center. TMB is a private-sector bank headquartered in Thoothukudi, with seven regional offices and 173 branches across India. During peak business hours, TMB generates a 100 MB log file every five minutes, which it replicates from Chennai to Bangalore. Prior to installing Riverbed's Steelhead appliances, replication of this file using Oracle's Data Guard application took more than 10 minutes. Following installation of the Steelhead appliances, the replication window dropped from over 10 minutes to two minutes.

Record handling by Tuticorin Port

Tuticorin Port has created a new record in cargo handling on New Year day (Jan 1) by unloading 13,811 metric tonnes of MOP in bulk at berth no 3 from the vessel MV IVS Kanda on a single day.

The previous record discharge of MOP was 10,431 MT on 2 July 2006 from the vessel Jin Fu. The new record was created by complementing the discharge by using three powerful Port TRF grab cranes from the vessel for all the three shifts.

The steamer agent of the vessel is Pearl Shipping Agency, Tuticorin, and the stevedores are Raja Agencies, Tuticorin. The cargo is meant for Indian Potash Ltd.

Shipyard in Tuticorin at 1,500 Crore

The Tuticorin Port has firmed up plans to build a shipyard on a build-operate-transfer or lease basis at a cost of Rs 1,500 crore, which will build six panamax size vessels in a year.

"Chennai-based Goodearth Maritime has prepared a pre-feasibility report by engaging international consultant Kora Maritime Consultant Company of Korea. The board of Tuticorin will consider this proposal and call for EoIs shortly," said a Tuticorin Port official.

Source: Business Standard