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Chennai Port

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“Port_of_Chennai” redirects here. For other uses, see Port_of_Chennai (disambiguation).

Coordinates: 13.08441° N 80.2899° E

Chennai Port

Chennai Port is India's second largest port, after the Port of Mumbai. It is over 125 years old. This was a major travel port before becoming a major container port. It is a substantial reason for the economic growth of Tamil Nadu, especially for the manufacturing boom in South India. Though much smaller than ports such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Shenzhen, it is expanding in the coming years.

[edit] History

Chennai Port, more than a century old artificial port, and located in Chennai, South India, is one of the major ports on the Coromandel coast of India. The initial piers were built in 1861, but the storms of 1868 and 1872 made them inoperative. So the Masonry work for L shaped breakwaters was started in 1876, but the storm of 1881 completely washed the almost completed harbour. The Chennai Port Trust has taken the year of rebuilding 1881 as the starting year and is now celebrating its 125th anniversary. The port's quays (berths) were constructed at different periods — the South Quay I in 1913, the five West Quay berths between 1916 and 1920, the North Quay in 1931 and the South Quay II in 1936, in the Inner Harbour, later christened Dr Ambedkar Dock.

It was under the stewardship of Sir Francis Spring from 1905-1919 that the major improvements took place. It can be said without doubt that the Madras Port was the main reason for the booming industry in Madras and contributed in no small measure to the development of the City. From handling a meagre volume of cargo in the early years, consisting chiefly of imports of oil and motors and the export of groundnuts, granite and ores, the port is moving towards handling 50 lakh (5 million) tonnes of cargo this year.

From 1881 to 1945, the cargo handled in Madras port varied from 0.5 million tonnes to 1 million tonnes. By 1979-80, the traffic touched 10 million tonnes, and increased to 15 million tonnes in 1984-95. By 1991-92, the volume was 25 million tonnes, touching 41 million tonnes in 2000-01. Though there was a slump in the next three years, the port recovered, to handle 47.25 million tonnes in 2005.06. In the current fiscal, the cargo handled is expected to cross 50 million tonnes. The car exports from this port are expected to touch 300,000 by 2008.

[edit] Operations

Chennai Port has 21 alongside berths in the 3 Docks viz., Dr.Ambedkar Dock, Jawahar Dock, Bharathi Dock and Container Terminal. Chennai Port handles a variety of cargo including iron ore, coal, granite, fertilizers, petroleum products, containers, automobiles and several other types of general cargo items. Due to the increase in container traffic, another container terminal is being planned based on a build and operate model. ^[1] The management of the container terminal was taken over by P&O Port of Australia. This has a volume growth of 18% per year and has 57% of the market share of South India. It has services to Singapore, Penang, Seoul, Europe, Australia and the US.

It enjoys a better quay length of 885 m. It has a berth productivity of 17 moves per hour, and an average turnaround of 24 hours. The operator has invested around $28 million to get new equipment at the terminal. Five new RTGs have already come, and five more are expected before the year-end. The operator has also taken over from Chennai Port 4 quay cranes, 10 RTGs, 3 reach stackers and 2 top lifters and one empty container handler. ^[2]