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MPT to hit 40m tonnes
2009/2/25
Despite plunging global markets and an economic meltdown, Mormugao Port Trust''s (MPT) cargo traffic is set to touch 40 million tonnes this financial year, above the estimated target of 37 million tonnes, the Times of India reported.
With just over a month to go to the end of the financial year, MPT expects to beat last year''s traffic of 35.13 million tonnes and even the estimated target for the current financial year.
Sources at MPT said that recession has not affected them. "It is only getting better," sources said. MPT''s traffic this financial is almost 9% of the total 519.24 million tonnes handled by the twelve major ports of India last year.
Much of the cargo has been in the form of iron ore and coal, however, there has been a steady increase in liquid and general cargo traffic too.
Container business, however, declined.
"On an average, 100 to 140 containers arrive in Goa every eight days in a feeder vessel from Colombo. But due to recession, this has gone down to 30 to 50 containers per voyage for almost a month now," said Amit Kamat, president, Goa Custom House Agents Association. Last year, MPT handled about 15,000 containers.
However, sources at MPT blame this decline not just on recession, but to the insufficient number of feeder vessels calling at the port, absence of four-lane highway and insufficient railway rakes for transport.
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2009/2/26