Plan To Develop Tuticorin Port As Asian Hub

Tuticorin hub port development council, promoted by Shippers and Chambers of Commerce at Tuticorin, is to prepare a viability report for developing Tuticorin Port as the South Asian hub port.

The council president T Johnson told a press conference here on Tuesday that council would engage two international consultants to prepare the report at a cost of Rs 20 lakh.

The report would be ready in another eight to 10 weeks and would be submitted to Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa to be forwarded to the centre to take action on the matter, he said.

He said if draught of the Tuticorin Port was developed to 16 meters from the present 11 meters, bigger vessels could call on the port, enhancing the revenue for the port.

He said a study conducted by AF Ferguson and Co had revealed that if Rs 7,800 crore was invested in the port, it could overtake the revenue of the Singapore Port by 2020.

Another study by Consulting Engineering Services India had stated that Rs 3,000 crore could be spent on developing the infrastrcuture in the port, which could generate more revenue as traffic to Colombo Port could be diverted to Tuticorin, he said.

He said Tuticorin Port had all qualfications to become the South Asian hub port. It was close to international sea route, had an all weather port and vast area of land was available for development of major and minor industries, he added.