New berth for Tuticorin port

Union Minister for Shipping, Road Transport & Highways T.R. Baalu has approved the construction of a new berth at North breakwater at the Tuticorin port.

North Cargo Berth 1 will cost Rs.40 crore. It will add a capacity of 2.93 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) to the port and help ease congestion in handling bulk/dusty cargoes in the existing berths.

Since it will enable the port to handle coal vessels of 65,000 to 75,000 dead weight tonnage (DWT) with a maximum draft of 12.8 metres,

Mr. Baalu has expressed the hope that the new berth will help meet the growing demand for handling bulk cargo in the coming years.

The Minister said the new birth will be especially useful for cargo meant for the proposed thermal power plant at Tuticorin to be set up by the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board and M/s Neyveli Lignite Corporation Ltd.

Presently, the Tuticorin port boasts of seven cargo berths, one container terminal, one oil jetty, two coal jetties and two shallow draft berths.

Private firms urged to file employment returns

The Directorate of Employment and Training has urged the private establishments in the district to file the employment returns (ER) in the prescribed forms before November 30, if they had not furnished them so far.

K. Kalaiselvan, District Employment Officer, said that the forms are available at the office of District Employment Officer at Koramballam or the organisations could download them from the official web site of the directorate, www.employment.tn.gov.in.

The filled-in forms should be submitted to the office of the District Employment Officer before the stipulated deadline to avoid any action under Compulsory Notification of Vacancies (CNV) Act, 1959.

“The filing was made mandatory since data submitted would play a vital role in the formulation of national policy on education, employment and training,” he said.

Mr. Kalaiselvan said that the data pertaining to number of persons employed at an establishment (both men and women separately) should be filed in the ER-I form, while the type of occupations and qualification of persons should be mentioned in the ER-II forms.

While ER-I should be filed during every quarter of a calendar year, ER-II should be filed once in two years.

The Employment Market Information (EMI) unit, a research and analysis wing, functioning at the office of District Employment Officer here, would compile and sent the entire data to the Planning Commission of India through the Directorate at the state level and Director General of Employment and Training at the national level.

Mr. Kalaiselvan said that the data submitted by the private firms would be used only for statistical purposes and hence the organisations need not have to be skeptical in filing the employment returns.

He said that the entire 381 government establishments (both departments and quasi government organisations) in the district filed the returns when a similar exercise was carried out during last calendar year to identify the status quo on employment in the government sector.

Source : The Hindu

Induction programme for students studying German

Indira Gandhi National Open University is organising an induction programme for the new students taking German language course.

The event will be held on Saturday at 9.30 a.m. at the IGNOU Regional Centre, CIT Campus, Taramani. Rudiger Punzet of Goethe Institut, Max Mueller Bhavan and Renu Bhardwaj, Director, School of Humanities, IGNOU, New Delhi, will participate in the programme. The students will be briefed on the structure of the programme and assignments. Course material will also be distributed.

Inductions for students in Tiruchi, Madurai, Coimbatore, Salem and Tuticorin will also be held at their respective study centres.

Tuticorin Port trust to conducts elocution contest

The Tuticorin Port Trust conducted an elocution competition on Thursday (November 15) for college students as part of the Vigilance Awareness Week celebrations organised at the port.

M Mathisekaran, chief vigilance officer, Tuticorin Port Trust, said that the competition was held on the topic ‘Role of youth towards elimination of corruption’. He said a ‘pattimantram’ was conducted on Tuesday evening to mark the Week celebrations. The Awareness Week which commenced on November 12 concluded on November 16.

TN seeks to double exports to $30 bn by 2011

The Tamil Nadu Government on Monday announced a new industrial policy seeking to double exports from the state to 30 billion dollars by 2011 that would create 10 lakh additional jobs.

The Industrial Policy 2007, released by Chief Minister M Karunanidhi here, seeks to generate a total of 20 lakh jobs by 2011, raise manufacturing sector's contribution to state GDP from 21 per cent to 27 per cent, improve competitiveness and efficiency of SMEs and agriculture-based industries.

"As work on the Sethusamudram channel is in progress, the state government would take up with the Government of India upgradation of Tuticorin port into a modern deep water hub port," it said.

Also, the state would provide all facilitation and support for early implementation of modernisation and expansion plans for Chennai airport.

The state would also follow-up with the Centre the issue of upgradation of Madurai, Tiruchirapalli, Tuticorin and Coimbatore airports to handle wide-bodied aircraft.

A land bank of 10,000 acres for industrial parks would be developed across the state over the next five years with quality infrastructure facilities, including social infrastructure like skill development centres, housing, business centres, restaurants, financial services, schools and hospitals.

The land bank would be developed only in dry and barren areas and prime agricultural land would be avoided, the policy stated.

Source: Economic Times

Proposed Office for Sterlite Industries Tuticorin

The Proposed Office for Sterlite Industries Tuticorin

Recently Sterlite Industries changed their registered office from Maharashtra to Tuticorin.

Minister inspects the construction of fish market in Tuticorin

Minister for Animal Husbandry P. Geetha Jeevan conducted an inspection at the V.O.C. Market here on Monday to review the progress of renovation work taken up by municipal administration there on an outlay of Rs.18 lakh.

Of the total project cost, Rs.13 lakh was taken from the Tuticorin MLA’s Constituency Development Fund and the rest from the municipal exchequer.

Ms. Jeevan said that as part of the project, cement flooring would be made on the selling space and sheds provided to fish vendors.

Facilities to drain waste water and to remove garbage would be set up to maintain a hygienic environment on the market premises.

The approach roads to the market to a length of 450 metre would be upgraded into cement concrete road. Later she inspected the site near Washers’ Colony, where a lifting station was proposed as part of the underground sewerage scheme to be established by the municipality here.

Municipal Chairperson R. Kasturi Thangam, Municipal Commissioner R. Lakshmi and Municipal Engineer S.A. Rajagopal were present.

Official sources said that the municipal administration would give a fillip to e-governance at a cost of Rs.27.23 lakh during this fiscal. As part of the project, a laptop computer, 10 desktop computers, 10 printers and an equal number of UPS, would be procured.

The electronic data processing room at the municipal office would be refurbished.

Source: The Hindu

Tuticorin based Mercantile Bank opens two branches

The Tamilnad Mercantile Bank Limited has opened its 195th and 196th branches recently.

A release from TMBL head office here said that the Minister for Social Welfare, Poongothai, inaugurated the 195th branch at Sholinganallur in Kancheepuram district.

Meanwhile, B. Ramachandra Adityan, ex-director of TMBL, opened the 196th branch and 75th ATM at Shenkottai.

G. Narayanamoorthy, Chief Executive Officer, TMBL, said that the bank opened the branch at Shenkottai to give a fillip to timber exporters and to improve Forex revenue of the bank.

He said that the bank had become a member of National Financial Switch, which would enable the customer’s to withdraw money from ATMs of 25 other member banks of NFS.

He said that the bank would bear the cash withdrawing charges at NFS ATMs for its SB premium customers and the current account customers who had maintained an average balance of Rs.25,000 and above.

Research club opened in Tuticorin

A ‘Research Club’ established by Annammal College of Education for Women was inaugurated by D. Kumaran, Head, Department of Education, Madras University, here on Saturday.

He explained the concepts such as refining knowledge, discovering knowledge and solving problems in higher education, on which any research thrived.

A seminar was conducted on ‘Preparation and validation of research tools’ as part of the inaugural ceremony.

A. Fibyraj, principal of the college, said that the club would conduct an array of seminars during the current academic year to enthuse the school students to take up innovative research projects. M. Anisha Devi, E.P. Tessy and S. Guru, lecturers, were appointed coordinators of the club.

Upgrading of Tuticorin municipality proposed

The long awaited dream of residents here to have their town attaining the status of Corporation is likely to be materialised as the municipal administration has prepared a proposal for upgrading.

According to official sources, the document would be sent to the Government in a week.

The draft prepared by the administration has suggested merger of municipality with local bodies situated adjacent to the municipal limits.

The move has been necessitated, owing to the fact that municipality alone does not have adequate population or revenue to attain the Corporation status.

Sources said that to get the status of Corporation, the population should be more than five lakh and annual revenue from taxes like professional, property taxes, rentals and license fees, should exceed Rs.30 crore.

Presently, the population in the Tuticorin town (municipal limits) stands at 2,16,058 as per 2001 census and the income is just Rs.18 crore.

Accordingly, the proposal has suggested merger of a total of 28 village panchayats extending from Swaminatham situated North West, Tharuvaikulam situated North East, Mudivaithanenthal at South East to Pazhayakayal village panchayat situated south, all spreading over an area of 353.07 sq km.

The amalgamation will take the population to 4,36,094, close to the stipulated benchmark.

“This will not be a hindrance from getting the Corporation status considering that the figures were based on census taken about six years ago and the population will surely have crossed five lakh mark by now,” sources said.

Similarly, the proposed merger will peg the revenue at about Rs.26 crore. “It is okay since there is a considerable increment in the revenue of municipality and the village panchayats that are to be merged,” sources pointed out.

Sources said that once the municipality became a Corporation, there would be a greater inflow of grants under various schemes, which was essential to improve infrastructure to commensurate exponential growth expected in Tuticorin once the Sethusamudram Ship Channel Project would be commissioned next year.

Source: The Hindu

TN urged to share 50 pc of project cost for double laning from Villupuram to Tuticorin

The Tamil Nadu Government has been requested to share 50 per cent of the cost of the project for doubling and electrification of the railway line between Villupuram and Tuticorin, Union Minister of State for Railways R.Velu said here on Wednesday.

Talking to reporters after inaugurating the Divisional Train Enquiry and Passenger information system,he said the Planning commission had found the project unviable.But when the volume of passenger traffic in the section was mentioned, it agreed to sanction the project provided the state government agreed to bear 50 percent of the cost, he said.

Doubling and electrification had been completed upto Villupuram. Doubling and electrification had been completed in Kerala and Karnataka states,and only this portion was left out in Tamil Nadu.

He said the Dindigul-Madurai Doubling and BG-Conversion work would be completed before March 31 next. The critical portion of the work including Vaigai bridge construction would be completed by this year.

He said a new railway terminal would be coming up in north madurai at a cost of Rs.12 crore.Besides,platforms were being extended in Madurai junction to accommodate 24 bogies.The Tuticorin-Mysore train would get five additional bogies after 'pit-line' work, which was going on at Tuticorin, was completed for the maintenance of the train.The frequency of the Manmad-Tirupati express would be increased twice a week shortly.

Source: The Hindu

Need to establish more container freight stations in Tuticorin

More number of container freight stations (CFS) should be established to commensurate the exponential growth in containerised cargo movement taking place in the country over the last decade, according to K. Suresh, Chairman, Tuticorin Port Trust.

Inaugurating the Container Freight Station established by the Vilsons Group of Companies in Tuticorin on an outlay of Rs.2 crore at a function held on Monday, he said that the container movement in the State registered 33 per cent growth during the first quarter of this fiscal vis-À-vis the corresponding period last fiscal.

He urged the operators of CFS to modernise the yards with equipments such as fork lifts and gantry cranes to facilitate faster movement and efficient handling of containers, rather than considering the facility as a mere transit point in the freight movement chain.

In his address, A. Subbiah, Deputy Chairman, Tuticorin Port Trust, said that the port plans to establish an additional container terminal on built, operate, transfer (BoT) mode during this fiscal to catapult Tuticorin as a major cargo handling port on the eastern coast of the country.

He reiterated the need for infrastructure development in the hinterland of the port in proportion with the increasing trade volume.

Mr. Subbiah said that the port administration had submitted a report to the Central Government suggesting establishment of ‘backbone freight corridors’ connecting Erode with cities like Bangalore, Hyderabad and Nagpur during the first phase.

This would facilitate easier movement of goods by rail from central India to the port here.

The corridor would also help expand the hinterland of the port and the container traffic through the port would witness a boom.

Joe Villavarayar, chairman of Vilson CFS, said that the station was equipped with warehouse area of 20,000 sq.ft., fork lifts, escort crane, trailers and fool proof security system.

“We plan to handle 3,000 TEUs of containers a month and the capacity would be increased in phased manner,” he added.

Source: The Hindu

Tuticorin Port traffic volume up

The Tuticorin Port has seen a rise in traffic volume after it announced changes through “Trade Notice” to handle deep draught vessels at anchorage beyond the permissible draught of 10.7 metres.Mr A. Subbiah, Deputy Chairman, Tuticorin Port Trust, in a statement here said that enthused by the amendment, importers brought a coal and a coke vessel carrying 53,106 tonnes and 46,759 tonnes respectively with draught of 12.5 metres and 12 metres and handled part cargo at the anchorage using self-propelled barges till the vessel reached 10.7 metres and the balance cargo was handled at the berth directly.

He said for the first time a dunpeas vessel mv. ‘Bei Hai’ with a parcel size of 43,497 tonnes, drawing 11.45 m draught, was handled at the port anchorage on October 8.

The vessel discharged 4,500 tonnes at the anchorage to self-propelled barges to reach 10.7 m draught and the cargo was further unloaded at Zone ‘B’. This performance was achieved in spite of intermittent rain during the course of handling. The port had provided all necessary infrastructural support such as transit storage and warehousing. The cargo was imported from Australia.

Source: BusinessLine